Liverpool must be wary of interest from Chelsea, Borussia Dortmund and Bayern Munich as they failed to get a deal to sign Fabio Carvalho over the line on deadline day.
The 19-year-old completed a medical, according to GOAL’s Neil Jones and the two clubs had agreed on an £8million (€9.58m) fee and Liverpool were even prepared to loan him back to Fulham.
Yet, although Julian Ward and Michael Edwards spent the entirety of deadline day trying to get a deal in place, Fulham dragged their feet and Liverpool ultimately missed out as they were ‘unable to complete the necessary paperwork in time for the 11pm GMT deadline.
What happened and what still needs to happen in order to sign Carvalho?
While it might seem confusing, Liverpool did actually reach an agreement with Fulham it simply was too late to be processed.
They agreed on an £8m (€9.58m) fee and for the attacking midfielder to spend the rest of the season on loan with Marco Silva but time was ultimately against them.
Jones writes for Goal that “it remains to be seen whether Liverpool will return for him in the summer.”
This is worrying as he adds that Bayern Munich, Chelsea and most concerning of all, serial youth poachers, Borussia Dortmund, are all interested in the 19-year-old and the starlet is now free to sign a pre-contract with whoever he wants to.
That said, he adds: “Liverpool are, however, expected to try and finalise a deal in the coming weeks, with Jurgen Klopp and his recruitment team believing he is a player of significant potential who would develop well on Merseyside.”
Liverpool need to act with haste as there is no reason to stall
After he passed a medical and a fee was agreed, it would blow my mind if Liverpool walked away from all that hard work simply because they ran out of time.
The Reds are simply far too systematic to not sign Carvalho now.
https://twitter.com/CF_Comps/status/1484843185436303365?s=20&t=VLVL_wlBeQL7MyLdHBWV2w
That’s my opinion, of course, but if the experts behind the scenes believe he is such a big talent and Jurgen Klopp rates him highly and FSG gave their blessing, it would be bizarre for Liverpool to simply walk away because there weren’t enough days in the month of January.
As Jones reports, Liverpool will try and put the finishing touches on a deal to sign Carvalho and hopefully they do so before Dortmund concoct some dastardly plan to woo him to move to the Westfalenstadion.