Anyone who pays attention to transfer rumours for more than five minutes knows that old rumours that never came to pass never die. They just get recycled. Reused over and over again, at the very least until the player gets a different big-money move. Sometimes they can feel as though they will go on until a player retires.
Arda Turan is the poster child, as the winger—now 27 years of age—has been linked to Liverpool every transfer window for the past five years. So too Barcelona's Pedro, also 27 years old and a twice yearly inclusion on the Liverpool transfer rumour smorgasbord. Now, the early signs have Xherdan Shaqiri on the verge of joining their ranks.
Having been linked to the club all summer, long after it became clear that any genuine interest in the player had passed, he is now being linked with a January move to Merseyside. By Shaqiri's own account, Liverpool bid for him prior to the World Cup, but Bayern unequivocally told them no and so the club moved on to other targets.
Shaqiri, though, appears to still be getting fewer minutes than he'd like at Bayern, and so with Liverpool's attack struggling, he has again—inevitably—been linked. As yet there appears about as much weight to the rumours as in the twice-weekly linkages that persisted following the World Cup and didn't stop until the summer window closed.
And if, as seems likely given the highly speculative nature of the revived links, it doesn't amount to anything in January, you can probably already pencil in the Shaqiri to Liverpool links to run through all of next summer. Because with them being revived now, based on the way the rumour mill works it's safe to say they're not going to stop. Ever.
At least not until Shaqiri gets a move to Liverpool, gets a move to a rival club, or retires. So. Welcome to the merry-go-round, Xherdan. We hope you enjoy spending the next decade on it.