Sign up to our free newsletter for the top North Wales stories sent straight to your e-mail Sign up now! Thank you for subscribing See our privacy notice Invalid Email

Strikers haven’t been far from the news for Liverpool this summer.

Whether it be the departure of their record signing, the wantaway machinations of their most prized asset, the fretting over the August availability of their in-form January acquisition or the wrangle concerning the capture of a new signing, the forward line hasn’t been far from Brendan Rodgers’ mind.

But while Andy Carroll, Luis Suarez, Daniel Sturridge and Iago Aspas have all commanded their share of the headlines, another forward has slipped under the radar.

Yet that has been the way for much of Fabio Borini’s Anfield career.

Since arriving for £10.5m from Roma last July to become Rodgers’ first signing as Liverpool manager, Borini has struggled to make an impact.

Not helped by first a broken foot and later a dislocated shoulder, the 22-year-old was restricted to just 20 appearances – and just five league starts – during his debut season and had to wait until April to notch his first Premier League goal in the 6-0 romp at Newcastle United.

Borini, who had previously impressed during a loan spell under Rodgers at previous club Swansea City, was fast becoming the forgotten man despite such a significant outlay on his talents.

But while Stuart Pearce’s England floundered at the European U21 Championships earlier this month, so Borini prospered.

Having proven his fitness to be included in the Italian squad for the tournament, the forward netted the only goal in his country’s 1-0 semi-final success against Holland and followed that by scoring in their 4-2 final defeat to an outstanding Spain side.

With so much uncertainty surrounding Liverpool’s forward line for next season, it was a timely reminder.

Such form has seen him return to prominence in his homeland, with Napoli – helmed by former Liverpool manager Rafael Benitez – among potential suitors.

Borini, though, wants to stick it out – not least, ironically, because of the plethora of foreigners in Italian football.

“Am I looking to move abroad? People need to think more about my situation,” he says. “In Italy people give more time to foreigners than they do to youngsters.

“I feel really good in England.”

Of his first season at Liverpool, Borini admits: “It’s been hard. When I hurt my shoulder, they said my season could be over. But I fought back as I really needed to come back earlier.

“I took the minimum possible to get back training which was eight weeks instead of 12. Some people probably didn’t think I could make it but I fought back.

“The goal (against Newcastle) was also for the manager, the staff and my teammates because it has been hard for me but I wanted to thank them for the work they had done with me.”

Borini will form part of what could be a new-look forward line come the first game of the season at home to Stoke City on August 17, with Carroll having gone, Suarez seemingly likely to follow and doubts persisting over Sturridge’s fitness.

Rodgers will be thankful that, unlike last season, the fixture list has been kind to Liverpool during the opening months, the visit of Manchester United in their third game appearing the only seriously testing encounter until a difficult November and December.

That will help bed in the foundations of his latest squad restructuring, with the Northern Irishman poised for what could be the busiest summer since the transfer window came into being.

Deals have already been agreed with Kolo Toure and Aspas, Liverpool are closing in on Simon Mignolet, Luis Alberto and Henrikh Mkhitaryan, while Tiago Iloris and Christian Atsu are genuine targets and Rodgers is expected to sign at least one more centre-back with Schalke’s Greece international Kyriakos Papadopoulos still the main target.

Liverpool have had mixed fortunes with previous major squad overhauls. Back in the summer of 1999, Gerard Houllier prefaced his first season in sole charge by bringing in seven players – Sami Hyypia, Vladimir Smicer, Titi Camara, Sander Westerveld, Stephane Henchoz, Erik Meijer and Dietmar Hamann.

Benitez’s biggest splurge came in the 2007 close season transfer window when he spent almost £45m on eight senior players in Lucas Leiva, Sebastian Leto, Fernando Torres, Andriy Voronin, Yossi Benayoun, Ryan Babel, Charles Itandje and Emiliano Insua.

The most players brought in during a summer, though, is the nine signed by Benitez and successor Roy Hodgson.

However, quantity didn’t necessarily result in quality – few of the incomings of Jonjo Shelvey, Milan Jovanovic, Joe Cole, Danny Wilson, Christian Poulsen, Brad Jones, Raul Meireles, Paul Konchesky and the re-signed Fabio Aurelio could be deemed a major success.

One possible area of concern for Liverpool supporters is that so few of Rodgers’ targets boast Premier League experience.

It can sometimes be a recipe hard to swallow; the most recent example of which saw Newcastle manager Alan Pardew admit his reliance on French talent was hampering his side in the wake of that St James’ Park drubbing to Liverpool.

“One of the problems I face with this group is not a language problem or a cultural problem,” said Pardew.

“It’s been one of inexperience on the pitch. We lacked experience on the pitch. We got ragged after the third goal and that’s not like one of my teams.”

Experience, though, doesn’t always count for everything, and Rodgers will point to the fortunes of several of his current players.

Despite no previous exposure to the English game, Philippe Coutinho has made an immediate impact since arriving from Inter Milan in the New Year.

And while well-versed in Premier League football, Jordan Henderson and Stewart Downing both took more than a season before truly finding their feet at Anfield.

Character and confidence would seem just as important as pure talent. After all, just ask Borini.