Rumour Mongering: Liverpool and Inter Milan Get Second Chance at Alex Teixeira

Two years ago, back in January of 2016, Liverpool were set to sign Alex Teixeira from Shakhtar Dontetsk. A deal was in place with the player, who was eager for a move, and it appeared a question of when and not if the two clubs would reach a compromise over his transfer fee.

That compromise never came; the deal fell through. Instead, Teixeira headed to China in a €50M deal, a major influx of capital into the Chinese Super League fuelling a big money bid by Jiangsu Suning. It wasn’t the move the 25-year-old wanted, but he went. The results, while not terrible, haven’t been ideal.

Now 27, Teixeira has scored 30 goals in 71 appearances, a solid contributor to CSL club’s attack but hardly a superstar. He’s also gone from a player on the fringes of the Brazilian national team to off the radar completely, and it’s probably too late for him to change that ahead of the World Cup.

And now, Jiangsu Suning appear to be ready to try to recoup their spend, with manager Fabio Capello deciding he’d rather have cash to spend than Teixeira on his squad and making the player available ahead of the January transfer market. Queue rumours of Liverpool interest.

There’s no sign Liverpool are actually interested, mind, but given their past interest and the nature of rumour mongering, it’s inevitable they will be linked, which is what nearly every English tabloid is doing now that it’s been made clear Jiangsu Suning would like to cash in on Teixeria.

Also mentioned in the rumours are Inter Milan, who—no surprise here—were also linked with the player back in 2016 before Liverpool became heavy favourites to sign him only to then fail to agree a transfer fee and see Teixeira head to China instead.

For the right price, one imagines anything is possible, but to all appearances Liverpool have long since moved on from Teixeira and this is nothing more than rumour mongers linking an available player to a club that once upon a time seemed destined to sign him.