Liverpool moved to block the inclusion of a buy option in Fabio Carvalho’s loan move to RB Leipzig, according to Neil Jones in the latest edition of his exclusive column for CaughtOffside.
The Portuguese midfielder only joined Liverpool from Fulham last year, and it’s fair to say he didn’t quite get the playing time he wanted as he pushed for a move away this summer.
Jones says this move came about more from the player’s side of things, with Carvalho clearly ambitious and wanting to play regularly at the highest level.
Carvalho can hopefully do that now with Leipzig, but it seems Liverpool still think he has a future at the club as they didn’t want to give the Bundesliga side the option of signing the 20-year-old permanently.
Jones also revealed that Leipzig have a long-standing interest in Carvalho, as they were one of the teams in for him before he made the move to LFC, which was felt to be a real coup at the time.
Fabio Carvalho in action for Liverpool
“Fabio Carvalho is understood to be closing in on a loan move to RB Leipzig, and I think this has been one that’s been on the cards for a while after he completely fell out of favour at Liverpool since the World Cup,” Jones explained.
“When he first joined last summer, following Liverpool also starting work on that deal the previous January, it was seen as a real coup for Liverpool. They beat off competition from a few other big clubs, including RB Leipzig at the time as well, and there was real excitement that they’d seen off rivals in Europe for a top young player.
“Then if you look at his first few weeks at Liverpool, it looked quite promising. He scored early on in his Anfield career, opening his account in that 9-0 win over Bournemouth, and scored that late, late winner against Newcastle not long after. He started the Merseyside Derby as well, but overall the team wasn’t where it should’ve been, and he was one of the victims. If you look post-World Cup, he started only two games, so…
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