Jack Hallows tries to break down the situation facing Liverpool Football Club as they try to seal a deal for Lyon attacker Nabil Fekir.
“Nabil Fekir has signed for Liverpool! Wait, no he hasn’t he’s failed a medical. Oh, he hasn’t even had the medical? Wait he’s had it and passed? Brilliant! Hang on… He hasn’t? What’s going on?!”
If you’re like me, you spent much of the last 24 hours scrolling down your Twitter feed asking yourself all of those very same questions.
It was reported on the 7th June that a deal had been agreed between the two clubs – Liverpool and Lyon – for a fee in the region of £50m for Nabil Fekir. The usual reliable suspects, Paul Joyce, Melissa Reddy and James Pearce, all confirmed this and it looked as if finally, after weeks of waiting, the mini-saga was over.
A medical was widely reported to have been scheduled for the morning of June 8th with the club hoping to seal the deal as quickly as possible which, of course, led Liverpool’s online fanbase into a frenzy. Even international team-mate Samuel Umtiti was hoping the saga had been resolved!
Planes were tracked, information was relayed, taken back and then relayed again in different wording and it became clear that really, nobody actually had a clue what was going on.
Lyon themselves even took to their Twitter account to categorically deny that any such deal had been struck. The club dispelled the news released the night before by claiming it to be “false information” and affirmed that Nabil Fekir very much remained a Lyon player.
Despite this, theories were abound that due to the French club’s position in the current stock market, the denial of any transfer for Fekir was simply done to save face. I’m not exactly well versed in this area but hopefully this tweet from @GFFN helps to explain that particular avenue.
Despite all this, the French media – RMC in-particular – seemed convinced that Fekir had indeed undergone a medical Friday morning and even went as far as to suggest he’d passed it, crossed all the t’s and dotted all the i’s on his contract and that the deal was done.
A brief tweet from Nabil Djellit – a French journalist with L’Equipe and France Football – seemed to confirm this news but fans anxiously were left awaiting confirmation from one of our own known-to-be reliable sources in the English media.
David Maddock was the first to step up to the plate, seemingly confirming the news that Fekir had indeed undergone a medical that morning and that a five-year deal had been agreed. Maddock claimed an initial £49m deal had been agreed and that the medical had taken placed at France’s Clairefontaine base near Paris.
Bad news Pearce was next to have his say and to the surprise of many, echoed the news that had been released by Maddock.
Pearce confirmed that Liverpool medical staff had indeed flown to Paris on Thursday night in the hopes of wrapping up the deal on Friday morning and that despite initial fears over a knee issue – Chris Bascombe of the Telegraph has nominated a knee injury sustained three years ago as a potential suspect – surfacing during the player’s medical, a second opinion had eased them enough that the player was deemed to have passed the examination.
So, Fekir’s a done deal then! Right?
Nope.
Despite his article just 12 hours earlier, David Maddock posted fresh news just hours ago claiming the club had “run into problems” during their attempts to finalise the deal for Fekir.
Maddock does claim that the deal is delayed rather than dead but suggests that the cause is thus far unknown.
He puts this down to uncertainty over the reports that Liverpool sought a second opinion on a possible knee issue found in the medical and the fact that the French media have seemingly continued pressing the Lyon stock market narrative – the club are officially unable to announce any transfer dealings to the public until the French window officially opens this weekend.
Frustratingly, while Maddock claims that the club were almost 100% certain to have finalised the deal, it is understood that they now do not expect any imminent incomings before the World Cup kicks off next week.
Unfortunately, even more reports have now surfaced backing Maddock’s claims with the Guardian citing major delays that could threaten to derail the deal due to French manager Didier Deschamps refusing to allow transfer business to affect any of his players during the looming World Cup.
Unfortunately, despite this deal having looked as if it was finalised just 24 hours ago, Nabil Fekir to Liverpool is going to rumble on and on – potentially until France’s involvement in the World Cup comes to an end. Of course, it could all be rubbish and he could be announced tomorrow for all we know but for now, it’s not looking good.
Receive a digest of our best Liverpool content each week direct to your mailbox
