Ben Doak was the subject of interest from a number of clubs in January, but a meeting with Michael Edwards and Julian Ward may have decided his future.
Though currently sidelined with a thigh injury, Doak is one of the Championship’s standout young players this season with three goals and seven assists in 24 games.
His performances for Middlesbrough attracted bids from both Crystal Palace and Ipswich in the winter transfer window, but those offers were rejected.
Instead, Doak has been deemed “ready to stake a claim” for a place in Arne Slot‘s Liverpool squad ahead of a return for pre-season in the summer.
This came after a productive meeting with Fenway Sports Group officials Edwards, CEO of football, and Ward, technical director, who visited Middlesbrough’s Rockliffe Park training ground in December.
According to The Athletic‘s James Pearce, “senior Anfield figures are delighted with how Doak has embraced the experience given the size of the leap from under-21s football to the Championship.”
Edwards and Ward held meetings with not only the player but also Middlesbrough manager Michael Carrick and first-team coach Jonathan Woodgate, who was briefly a scout at Liverpool.
There was clearly a positive feeling around those meetings as Liverpool were minded to dismiss bids in the region of £16 million the following month.
It could be argued, however, that subsequent briefings from Anfield that offers of around £30 million would be required to sign Doak gave the opposite impression.
But with Liverpool happy to allow the deadline for their recall clause to expire in late January, ensuring the teenager stays at Middlesbrough for the rest of the season, there is clearly a confidence he can thrive.
Doak had already made an impact under Slot in pre-season but was later demoted to the U21s squad, with Federico Chiesa signed from Juventus as a more senior option on the right.
Whether the head coach’s opinion will change ahead of the 2025/26 campaign remains to be seen, but Edwards and Ward are seemingly convinced his time at Middlesbrough can steel him to battle for a first-team spot at Liverpool.
That is perhaps summed up as Pearce writes: “Liverpool recruitment staff who attend the weekly global emerging talent meetings have remarked that if Doak was not their player, they would be commissioning a hefty scouting and analysis dossier about him.”
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