Martin Skrtel was the king of the dodgy excuse

Former Liverpool star Martin Skrtel was the king of the dodgy excuse, said journalist James Pearce in his latest podcast.

The Reds cult figure joined the club in 2007 and made a total of 320 appearances throughout his time at Anfield, winning over critics and earning praise for his tough-tackling, no nonsense approach to the game.

Pearce, who is going over his best moments from his time covering Liverpool, proceeded to give his favourite excuse a player gave for not stopping in the mixed zone to give a few words.

And surprise, surprise, that player was Skrtel. And the reason? He wanted to get home for a bath! In fairness, that bath also contained his wife, who had freshly texted the Serbian to tell him to get home as soon as possible.

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Banter.

Skrtel and Daniel Agger formed an excellent partnership at the heart of the defence, but that relationship was always doomed to fail because of Agger’s injury record and Skrtel’s mini confidence crisis that gifted away a few goals.

For the first time in a long time Liverpool are secure at the back thanks to Virgil van Dijk and his aura of invincibility that seems to inspire whoever he plays alongside to bigger and better things.

Joel Matip, Dejan Lovren and Joe Gomez have all looked like proper, proper defenders during their time playing with van Dijk – and that’s something we can all get behind.

In other news, Napoli could have just opened a revolving door of transfers that benefits Liverpool after they spent big to buy Konstantinos Manolas from AS Roma.

This could mean that they’re getting ready to sell in-demand Kalidou Koulibaly in order to balance the books. The Reds have been linked before, but all the current noise surrounding the transfer situation indicates a club who aren’t ready to go large.