This week may have shone a light on both the strengths and the weaknesses of Liverpool when it comes to the transfer market.
On the downside, the Premier League giants appear to have missed out on a leading midfield target for the third time in the space of around 12 months.
After Moises Caicedo and Romeo Lavia opted for Chelsea – a decision which is yet to really work out for either player – Martin Zubimendi became the latest talented ‘number six’ to snub Liverpool’s advances.
The six-time European champions appeared to be on the verge of sealing a potential £51 million deal for the Spain international and the Euro 2024 champion. That was until Zubimendi informed Liverpool on Monday that he would not be arriving at Anfield after all, HITC understands.
Now, Basque players tend to have a serious sense of loyalty. And the sight of Zubimendi committing his future to Real Sociedad – he could even sign a new contract – is testament to that.
Fulham fans may argue that Fabio Carvalho would have benefitted from showing some loyalty of his own back in 2022.
The Cottagers academy graduate ran down his deal before joining Liverpool two years ago. Since then, Marco Silva’s side have established themselves as a solid, mid-ranking Premier League outfit.
Carvalho, in the same time frame, has made only four top-flight starts while dropping back down to the Championship with Hull City in pursuit of more regular minutes.
One can only wonder how far he would have come had he opted to stay put and play week-in, week-out at Fulham instead.
Fabio Carvalho leaves Liverpool for Brentford
Carvalho finally brought a permanent end to his ill-fated Liverpool career this week. He returns to West London with Fulham’s near neighbours Brentford.
And while Liverpool have struggled of late when it comes to luring their top targets to Merseyside, selling unwanted talents remains a real strength.
Substantial fees were made from the likes of Dominic Solanke, Neco Williams, Harry Wilson, Danny Ings, Danny Ward, Jordon Ibe and more.
Carvalho now earns Liverpool a £20 million profit, The Reds benefitting hugely from the attacker’s ‘outstanding’, reputation-saving loan spell at Hull in the second-half of last term.
“What Liverpool are brilliant at is bringing transfer fees in,” Carragher tells The Overlap after Carvalho moved to Brentford for an eye-watering £27 million. “And that is nothing to do with the manager. When a manager wants a player to go, the club get on with that.
“And Liverpool got a great fee the other day for Carvalho to Brentford. That’s what they are brilliant at.”
Thomas Frank delighted to sign former Fulham whizzkid
Carvalho scored nine times and set up two more in just 20 starts for a Hull side who only narrowly missed out on the play-off positions.
Supremely gifted from a technical sense and versatile enough to play virtually anywhere across the attacking midfield positions, Brentford will be hoping that Carvalho can follow in the footsteps of Ivan Toney, Ethan Pinnock, Bryan Mbeumo and more at a club who can boast a superb track record when turning EFL stalwarts into Premier League stand-outs.
“Fabio is a player with a lot of qualities,” Bees boss Thomas Frank tells the club’s official website. “He can play in all of the front three or four positions in a 4-3-3 or a 4-2-3-1. His best position is probably as a number ten or coming in from the left.
“Offensively, he has great abilities on the ball. He can go past players, slide a pass, create chances and get on the end of chances. He’s a type of player that we don’t have many of in the squad so he will add that something extra for us.
“His ability and mentality to work hard in the pressure is also very, very good. That’s along with him ticking all the boxes from a cultural perspective and being the right character.
“So we’re very pleased to see him come in and push the team forward.”
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