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The vast majority of transfer rumours fermenting around Liverpool as the season nears its close and summer looms involve potential incomings, and the few possible outgoings being talked about until now have mostly been defenders. Quietly, though, whispers have begun to link Fabio Borini with a move back to Italy.
They first popped up towards the end of February, when agent Marco De Marchi discussed the player's disappointment at losing most of the season to injuries, insisting his client wasn't seeking a change of scenery despite that little had seemed to go right for the striker since he arrived at Anfield.
However, rather than going away, speculation that Fiorentina are interested in acquiring Borini has continued to rumble along in the background even while most Liverpool fans have remained focused on flashier rumours. As a result, a month on from shooting down the original rumours, Borini's agent has once again spoken out to insist the player is happy at his current club.
"I've heard the Fiorentina rumours, but there has been no direct contact," he told TMW this week. "Fiorentina are a club on the launch pad, they have laid the groundwork for an important project by signing great players, and results will soon arrive. However, Borini has [embraced] the Liverpool project and they are one of the most important clubs in the world."
Though the main thrust of his message is once again an insistence Borini is happy to stay at Liverpool and remains fully on board with manager Brendan Rodgers' plans for the club, language that talks of "no direct contact" does leave a great deal of room for speculation that Fiorentina may have made some form of inquiry. As such, it's unlikely Marchi's latest statement will put an end to the Borini to Fiorentina whispers.
As when talk linking Borini back to Italy first surfaced, though, it's important to remember that this is a player who has spent four of the past five years in England, and as such there is little reason to think culture shock or home sickness would drive him back towards Serie A.
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