Rumour Mongering: Cardiff and Fulham Compete to Sign Marko Grujic

If Liverpool get all their summer business done, sealing a deal for Nabil Fekir to go along with the already signed Fabinho and Naby Keïta in a stunning midfield overhaul, the club will have a kind of midfield depth they have never previously known.

With Jordan Henderson, James Milner, Gini Wijnaldum, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, and Adam Lallana all expected to remain at the club—though some have injury concerns or may be able to fill in elsewhere—it will be a packed, competitive midfield.

And it won’t leave much room for 22-year-old Marko Grujic despite his impressive loan spell at Cardiff last season where he helped to earn them promotion to the Premier League. Cardiff, though, would like him back if there’s no room at Liverpool.

Fulham are also now being linked with him by Goal.com’s Neil Jones, a former Echo writer with ties to the club, meaning that two of the newly promoted sides could end up battling to take Grujic for at least the 2018-19 season—and perhaps even longer.

It’s not, perhaps, where Grujic would have expected to end up when he made the move to Liverpool back in 2016 as Jürgen Klopp’s first signing, a player hand-picked by assistant manager Zeljko Buvac and one who arrived with great promise.

With the quality of depth at Liverpool as the Reds look to position themselves for a title challenge and build a squad that can challenge the likes of Manchester City, though, heading to the likes of Fulham or Cardiff may be his only choice.