We thought it was all wrapped up when Fabrizio Romano confirmed Fabio’s move to Liverpool a couple of weeks ago and it may still be but there’s enough uncertainty in the air to suggest this may not be the case. We’ll have a look at the rumours circulating, Marco Silva’s words and what I think the best route for Fabio is (from an unbiased point of view of course…).
The first and perhaps most realistic situation is that Fabio has agreed a deal, signed on the dotted line and will be a Liverpool player come next season. However, Marco Silva’s presser threw up some uncertainty. When asked about Fabio’s future Silva stated “I’m speaking with the board, I haven’t heard news about it. I don’t want to talk rumours.”. It’s also worth noting that Fabrizio said it would be announced once Fulham had secured promotion but almost one week on and no news can only be good news for hopeful Fulham fans. Of course Silva may just be trying to maintain focus on winning the league and Liverpool could be respecting that too by delaying their announcement, equally I wouldn’t put it past our board to agree on a deal and not communicate that to Silva – unlikely but we’ve seen worse.
So what else could be going on? In principle a deal could be agreed but the two clubs are still hashing out whether or not Carvalho comes back on loan to Fulham. It certainly doesn’t bode well for us if on our third attempt at remaining in the Premier League we lose a stand out performer before kicking a ball. We know how desperate Silva and the club are to keep Fabio so even if it’s only going to be on loan then it’s worth putting up a fight and it would be a huge help in maintaining Premier League status beyond the 22/23 season. It could even be that now we’ve secured promotion we can release some funds to offer Fabio a better deal which he’s now mulling over – again, unlikely but not impossible.
One thing is for sure, he isn’t acting like a player who’s about to leave the club, maybe that shows his professionalism in maintaining focus on the pitch. However, his celebratory gestures towards the Fulham faithful at the Cottage on Tuesday and again at Bournemouth didn’t look like those of a player who’d agreed a deal elsewhere but maybe he’s just enjoying the celebrations and why shouldn’t he. What I do find particularly strange though is the amount of ‘air-time’ he’s been getting on Fulham’s socials of late. He was the poster-boy for the promotion of the Preston game and has been featured numerous times unrelated to the goals he’s scored recently. I can’t understand why this would be the case if the club knew he’d already committed to a future elsewhere, all of these things are giving me a glimmer of hope.
Now let’s take a look at a couple of other rumours which I’ve seen floating around without too much substance. Could Neco’s absence on Saturday and recent admission that he’ll be returning to Liverpool be to do with an angry Liverpool board because the Fabio deal has been taken from their clutches? Whilst I think Neco would be a great permanent addition to the squad, if him going back to Liverpool means we can keep Fabio then I’d take that in a flash. I personally don’t think there’s anything in these rumours but it’s fun to take a look at all possible scenarios. The final one I’ve seen is that Man City are making a late and more lucrative approach but once again there’s not much weight behind this at the moment and the outcome wouldn’t differ too much for Fulham.
I want to finish by giving my genuine view on what I think Fabio should do for his own development and it just so happens to benefit Fulham as well. I believe he should commit to a two year deal with us with a reasonable release clause, at 19 years old he’ll benefit massively from regular Premier League football. You can only imagine he would start week in week out for us if he keeps up his performances, it may take some time to adjust to the new league but his performances at the end of the 19/20 season show he has what it takes. I don’t think he’d spend as much time on the bench at Liverpool as some are suggesting but fighting for a place amongst Mane, Diaz, Jota and Salah, or whoever his replacement may be, isn’t going to lead to regular starts. This scenario would also help Fulham in the fight to stay up and would lead to a hefty financial benefit if he’s to get his big money move in the summer of 2023 which he’d surely get if he fulfils even an ounce of his potential. It also repays Fulham for the opportunities they’ve given him since picking him up aged 13 from Balham, I know there’s not much loyalty in football anymore but we can hope.
We could spend time looking at the moves other young prospects from Fulham have made but in truth I think Carvalho is a level above, with the potential exception of Elliot who we didn’t get to see a huge amount of before he left. Roberts who joined Man City back in 2015, has had 6 loan spells and now finds himself in League One with Sunderland. More recently Ryan Sessegnon joined Spurs and two years later has 28 appearances to his name and a loan spell with Hoffenheim, at 21 years of age his future could be bright still. We’re yet to see what will happen with Harvey Elliot who made the move to Liverpool via tribunal in 2019, he had a successful loan to Blackburn and has made 10 appearances across all competitions for Liverpool this year, after a lengthy injury layoff he hasn’t managed to get back into the side.
Overall I’m not convinced anything is final just yet with Fabio but I’m not confident we’ll be able to keep hold of him, I’ll be keeping everything crossed.
