The fact that Liverpool were gunning for a move to sign Lyon captain Nabil Fekir was no secret but after months of pursuit, the French outfit has pulled the plug on the deal.
As confirmed by BBC, Fekir will not join Liverpool this summer and he will instead stay back with his current club. After bolstering our midfield department with the likes of Fabinho and Naby Keita, Fekir was being aggressively targetted to fill the void left behind by Philippe Coutinho.
Despite having players like Sadio Mane, Roberto Firmino and Mohamed Salah up front, Liverpool failed to do much besides securing a top-four finish in the Premier League.
Granted, we reached the Champions League final but we missed out on the trophy due to a significant lack of midfield talent. Long story short, we were outclassed by the likes of Casemiro, Luka Modric and Toni Kroos to a great extent.
However, it looks like we will have to look for options elsewhere now. Undoubtedly, this will come as a major setback for Jurgen Klopp and our fans were not too pleased either. Here are some of the reactions on Twitter:
Chillex… It's the Liverpool way 😉 #Fekir pic.twitter.com/TWVj50hhUS
— Ziyaad 🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆 (@ZIYAAD_LFC) June 10, 2018
The club won’t have pulled out of the Fekir deal without good reason. Liverpool play one of the most high intensity brands of football around, and if there were serious concerns around Fekir’s knee, it makes sense that the risk didn’t justify spending over £50m.
— Joel Rabinowitz (@joel_archie) June 10, 2018
https://twitter.com/_PyroJay/status/1005534627019284481
https://twitter.com/TheFamousKop/status/1005706560646115328
Whoever leaked that YouTube picture of Fekir signing for Liverpool, I beg you release the video.
— – (@AnfieldRd96) June 9, 2018
https://twitter.com/transfergeek/status/1005526364534050816
Fekir literally did an interview in a Liverpool shirt and had photos taken. How on earth did we mess this up
— LiverpoolFF (@LiverpoolFF) June 9, 2018
Fekir had even chosen his shirt number ..his heart and soul is at Liverpool 😔 #LFC
— Grizz Khan (@GrizzKhan) June 9, 2018