Underused Liverpool star becomes No 1 transfer target for ambitious English club who’ll spend big

Liverpool attackers Harvey Elliott and Fabio Carvalho

An ambitious Championship side will spare no expense in their efforts to sign a Liverpool attacker

Liverpool are primed to receive a tempting bid for a young star who’s been chronically underused by Jurgen Klopp.

Success stories in the market have defined Klopp’s era at Anfield. Transfer misses have been few and far between, with the likes of Naby Keita a rare outlier.

However, one more recent signing who’s not yet delivered the goods is Fabio Carvalho.

Liverpool pushed to sign the Portuguese playmaker in the winter window of 2022. An agreement was struck, though the finer points of the deal weren’t completed in time.

Nonetheless, Liverpool, Fulham and Carvalho were content to simply revive the deal six months later and a deal worth £5m (rising to £7.7m through add-ons) crossed the line in the summer.

Carvalho racked up just 728 minutes of action in his first season with the Reds. As such, the decision to loan the 21-year-old out was made ahead of the current campaign.

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However, the regular game-time Liverpool expected Carvalho to receive at RB Leipzig did not materialise. Liverpool ultimately cut the loan agreement short in January before sanctioning another exit, this time to Championship side Hull City.

Carvalho has thrived at the promotion-chasers, notching three goals thus far. Carvalho has started every league match since his arrival and has completed the full 90 minutes on three occasions.

Now, in an interview with i news, Hull’s executive vice-chairman, Tan Kesler, has outlined his club’s ambition to sign Carvalho outright.

Kesler admitted doing so would hinge entirely on Hull winning promotion. The Tigers currently sit sixth in the table and occupy the final play-off place.

Kesler acknowledged prising Carvalho out of Liverpool won’t come cheaply. Nonetheless, he and Hull and determined to spare no expense when the time comes, such is their desire to land Carvalho.

“If we’re promoted for sure we will pursue him” – Hull chief

“I’m not going to say it’s easy because the financials are strong,” said Kesler.

“[Carvalho has] a Premier League level salary [and] Liverpool are going to demand quite a bit of a transfer fee for him.

“The chairman would want to sign him, he would do it in a heartbeat, if there’s no FFP, no regulations, no control, I’m sure we will invest to sign Fabio.

“If we’re promoted for sure we will pursue him because of the money we would be receiving, we would try to allocate those finances on players like Fabio.

“It can be unrealistic expectations for some of our fans but we’re very optimistic. If any of this happens we will do it because he’s someone we would love to have long term.”

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New Liverpool manager could seal Carvalho’s fate

It’s important to note Carvalho’s loan deal with Hull DOES NOT contain an option to buy. As such, they’ll be at Liverpool’s mercy with regards to the size of the transfer fee required to unlock a deal.

Whether Carvalho has a future at Liverpool could largely depend on who replaces Klopp as manager.

Carvalho was underused by Klopp, though his standing in the Liverpool team could rise – or even fall – under the next boss, which is expected to be Xabi Alonso…

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