A thread for updates and discussion on the progress of our players out on loan.
The players who have loans arranged for the season are:
Adam Bogdan (28) - Wigan Athletic (Championship)
Jack Dunn (21) - Morecombe FC (League 2)
Jon Flanagan (23) - Burnley FC (Premier League)
Ryan Fulton (20) - Chesterfield (League 1)
Ryan Kent (19)- Barnsley (Championship)
Allan Rodrigues de Souza (19)- Hertha Berlin (Bundesliga)
Danny Ward (23) - Huddersfield (Championship)
Rule Changes:
There have been some changes to the rules of the loan system for this season.
Loans may now only be made (or cancelled) during the transfer windows.
Players can no longer be recalled from loan.
Short-term or emergency loans are no longer permitted.
There are exceptions for goalkeepers, with clubs who find themselves without a senior keeper (one who has made five first team appearances) able to make short-term loans for a replacement. Similarly, teams who have loaned keepers out may recall them at 24 hours' notice if they are unable to field two fit keepers in their match day squad.
Players on loan may continue to play non-first team football for their parent clubs. (So in principle, Jack Dunn, for example, could still turn out for our U23 side.)
Liverpool's use of the loan market
LFC have a new policy for players on loan, whereby the club taking the players on gets a significant reduction in the cost of taking the player if he makes more than 75% of first team appearances for which he's available. This should help to avoid the risk of players going on loan to get match experience, only to end up on the bench for the duration.
It's not clear if this stipulation applies to players like Adam Bogdan, who apparently is going out on loan as he is no longer required, rather than to develop him as a player.
Klopp on loans
A discussion last season from Klopp about loans was widely discussed, and mostly taken entirely out of context. At the time, Klopp was surprised by how many players LFC had loaned out last season and wondered aloud if those players might not be better off playing for "our second team" rather than being on loan and not playing. It was very clear watching that discussion that Klopp was saying that he did not fully understand the situation and that he was expressing a gut feeling rather than a fully considered strategy.
Some took this as proof that the club would never send another player on loan, when really that was quite a leap from Klopp's actual words and the context in which they were said.
It's important to remember that in Germany the "second team" would be playing competitive league football in a lower division, which is not the case here.
The "Premier League 2" - the current incarnation of the reserves/U21s has itself undergone some changes for the new season,
see
https://www.premierleague.com/news/58764 for details.
Despite the changes, the U23 side still only has 22 matches a season, and with several prospects competing in similar positions, there clearly still are not enough matches for satisfactory development. The club arranges extra games on an ad hoc basis, but this is not ideal.
It does seem that Klopp's issue with players going on loan and not playing has fed into the 75% policy.
Allan
Allan is a special case. As he is an uncapped Brazilian without a European passport, it has been difficult to get him a work permit. The rules have recently changed (and will change again if and when the UK finally leaves the EU, but that is still some way off) so the old "go and ask the FA really nicely and show them some youtube clips" approach has been replaced with a points system. By playing a certain number of minutes in a top flight league (30%) Allan will be helping his case for a permit. Since Hertha failed to get into Europe, though, it's unclear if or how he would gain the number of points needed to get through the system.
