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Beesotted regular columnist, Larry Signy, gives his personal take on the arrival of Liverpool midfield Portugeezer, Joao Carlos Teixeira, who is expected to make his Bees debut at Tranmere this Saturday.

Thank goodness we’ve signed Joao Carlos Teixeira. Not that I’ve ever seen him play – but from his past career with Sporting Lisbon, Liverpool’s Development Squad and as a junior Portuguese international, he certainly seems like ‘my’ kind of footballer. A creator. A flair player. And that, as far as I can see, has halted what seems to me to be a slight change of direction from the management.

In the past couple of seasons, I feel we have apparently been aiming for a more flowing kind of football – tippy-tappy if you will – but recent signings have tended to included players like Alan McCormack, Martin Taylor (although I haven’t yet seen him play either) and Tony Craig.

Even George Saville seems to be slightly in that mould – tough, unyielding, hard-to-beat, spoilers. Toumani has always been our own destroyer, but he seems to have been out-exterminated by the new influx of hard men.

I know teams need that kind of player. But do we need a whole defence and midfield full?

I don’t think so – so I am delighted that Joao Carlos has signed. It has, apparently, put us back on track for the kind of real football I want. Creative, fluid, skilful – the ball flowing from man to man accurately.

If he proves to be the man we (and the managements of Liverpool and seemingly Italy’s Serie A Bologna) hope he is – a great big welcome. May he ‘pass’ his time here at Griffin Park fruitfully.

Larry Signy