Martin Skrtel Expected in Istanbul on Tuesday to Complete Fenerbahce Move

Last week, reports out of Turkey claimed that Martin Skrtel was flying out to finalise negotiations and complete his transfer to Fenerbahce. Today, we inch just a little bit closer to that, and to a £5.5M sale of the 31-year-old Slovak centre half, with news from the club itself.

Fenerbahce took the unusual step today of announcing that Skrtel negotiations were indeed ongoing and that a favourable resolution was expected, and moreover that the player would arrive in Istanbul on Tuesday afternoon to complete contract negotiations with the Turkish Super Lig club.

Hopefully, with the club announcing it, this time around it’s slightly more reliable than last week’s reports. Still, it does at least appear that no matter the particulars of the ongoing transfer, it is in fact an ongoing transfer—and one that should be wrapped up in fairly short order at this point.

It will need to be, too, with Skrtel expected to report back from his post-Euro vacation in short order. Slovakia were knocked out of the tournament by Germany on June 26th, and with players given three weeks off, he will be expected back in Liverpool by either Sunday or next Monday.

That means the player and his agent have about a week to finish dotting the Is and crossing the Ts on his move to Turkey to avoid an awkward Anfield return followed inevitably by an exit shortly thereafter.