Liverpool recruitment staff have promised to learn from one decision made at Anfield last year which has left them ’embarrassed’, according to a report from Football Insider.
In the final few hours of the summer transfer window, Arthur Melo signed on a season-long loan from Juventus, but the deal hasn’t worked out how either he or the club would’ve liked.
Seven months into his time with the Reds, the 26-year-old has made just a solitary 13-minute appearance, which came in the 4-1 loss at Napoli early in the campaign (Transfermarkt).
Injury problems and subsequent surgery have prevented him from breaking back into Jurgen Klopp’s side (The Athletic), and he looks set to return to his parent club in the off-season after an abortive spell on Merseyside.
Football Insider have claimed that Liverpool’s recruitment team feel ’embarrassed’ by the deal, with insiders at Anfield telling the publication that ‘the club have vowed not to let such a mistake happen again – ahead of a crucial transfer window for Jurgen Klopp’s side’.
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Arthur’s loan spell certainly hasn’t gone to plan for anyone involved, with the Reds having paid a £4m fee to bring him to England for the season (Football Insider).
However, it’s worth remembering just how much sense the deal made at the time, with injuries to Jordan Henderson and Thiago leaving us light on midfield options and the 26-year-old boasting a CV which included more than 150 games combined for Barcelona, Juventus and Brazil (Transfermarkt).
It’s not as if he wanted to get injured, and even though the move hasn’t worked out, the £4m outlay is relatively minor in a wider context. This isn’t a megabucks transfer which saw FSG break the bank by taking a speculative punt on a player who’d only impressed over a short period.
Indeed, every single transfer a football club makes has an element of calculated gamble to it – previous success with one team isn’t a sure-fire guarantee of that being replicated elsewhere.
The Arthur loan deal shouldn’t be a cause for embarrassment, considering the circumstances in which Liverpool signed him, but it’s nonetheless welcome to see recruitment staff at Anfield willing to review and learn from previous activity as they try to uphold high standards of performance.
Also don’t forget the mistake with Ramsey who we bought when recovering from injury and hasn’t played all season. May turn out be be very good buy but can’t keep buying ‘sicknote’ players like we have done. Thiago had a poor injury record which continued when he joined us. The Ox’s injury record wasn’t great at Arsenal.