Rumor Mongering: Lanzini on List of Fekir Alternatives, Briefly

So it happened.

Nabil Fekir did not become a Liverpool player, and it doesn’t look like he is going to become one any time soon. There’s various reporting on what the reason behind the deal collapsing is, but in all likelihood we will never learn the definitive truth about the situation.

Onwards and upwards. Liverpool still need an attacking midfielder, and it looks like it’s still on the agenda.

That’s what has been said by the generally reliable and well connected Chris Bascombe of The Telegraph. According to Bascombe, the club “will reassess their list of targets to replace Philippe Coutinho after calling off the £53 million deal for Lyon’s Nabil Fekir”. He goes on to state that Liverpool “drew up a list of possible replacements after Coutinho’s sale to Barcelona in January and felt Fekir was the ideal attacking midfield recruit”, making it clear that Fekir was very much a replacement for the not as yet replaced Philippe Coutinho, who you may have heard was sold to Barcelona for a hefty fee in January.

Curiously, Bascombe mentions that another option was West Ham’s Manuel Lanzini, although that may now be off the table due to his own injury problems. Paul Joyce of The Times, in a similar story, goes as far as to state that “interest in Manuel Lanzini has also ended after the West Ham United player suffered a knee ligament injury in training with Argentina’s World Cup squad”.

Look, you’re all probably sick of hearing about Nabil Fekir at this point, and we’re all sick of writing about him. It’s not happening. That Manuel Lanzini was another target is a curious twist in the tale, but his latest injury has ruled him out of the World Cup and apparently a move to Liverpool as well. It is frustrating to hear that the next name on the list has been crossed off, but at least it’s good to learn that there is a list, presumably with other names on it, and this isn’t a Virgil van Dijk situation where it’s him or nobody.

That one worked out pretty well in the end, though.