Patience proves a Virtue as Blackpool land Liverpool midfielder

The 21-year-old had been the captain of Liverpool’s Under-23 side but the central midfielder says it was a no-brainer to join Terry McPhillips’ side.

Virtue, who has agreed a permanent move to Bloomfield Road, says he’s keen to play as many games as possible.

“I was aware of the interest from the very start of the window, they enquired at the start of January so I knew it was always there,” he said.

“I wasn’t actually fit at that point so I spent the month at Liverpool trying to get fit, getting games under my belt, but as soon as I knew Blackpool were serious about it I was happy to come here.

“I went on loan to Notts County during the second half of last season and that was an experience of men’s football. That was the plan for the start of the season but that didn’t work out in the summer, but ever since then I’ve been looking to get out and Blackpool came in and offered a good permanent deal at a good club with a really good management team, so I thought ‘why not?’

“Liverpool are the best team in England at the moment, they’re top of the league and were in the final of the Champions League last season. I knew it was always going to be hard to break into the team because of the money and the standard of players, so I wanted to come to Blackpool, play well and get a lot of games under my belt.”