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Heading into transfer deadline day, most assumed the Fabio Borini situation would resolve itself. In the end it did, but perhaps not in the way most expected it to. That's because today, Fabio Borini is still a Liverpool player, something few expected to be the case.
"Finally the madness is finished," Borini took to Twitter and Instagram to say. "I protected the man and the player that I am today, taking all the responsibility of the situation… and I am very happy with myself to have taken such an important decision."
Over the summer, with an offer from Sunderland on the table, Borini's agent had come out on multiple occasions to say his player had bought into a project when he signed up to move to Liverpool. That he had no intention of rushing off to join yet another club.
Still, with playing time likely to be severely restricted at Liverpool, most assumed that in the end he would accept a move to Sunderland. Then, when QPR came calling and reports spoke of his agent entering into negotiations, a move to London began to seem half-way done.
In the end, though, it fell through. And Borini's statement would appear to hint at the fact that he's actually rather glad it fell through, suggesting perhaps that his demands of £90k per week wages were something more than standard footballer contract negotiations.
The implication is that Borini's first choice was and remains to remain at Liverpool, and that if he was going to be pried away from the club, whoever got him would have to pay over the odds to do so. With that, in the end, he appears to have gotten the non-move he wanted from the start.
With four competitions and the potential for injuries, perhaps in the long run it will even be the right decision for his career. Hopefully it can be. Hopefully too, in a world filled with too many footballing mercenaries, fans can appreciate a player wanting to stick around.
