Paul Wheelock has been discussing Fabrizio Romano’s account of what led to Thiago Alcantara’s move from Bayern Munich to Liverpool during a recent edition of the Blood Red podcast.
The Premier League champions signed the midfielder back in September, on a four-year deal for a fee of £20m but that could rise to £25m with bonuses (as per BBC Sport). Judging by what the Liverpool Echo employee had to say, it appears the 29-year-old was extremely close to signing a contract extension with the Bundesliga champions, only to change his mind last minute and ask to leave the club.
Wheelock relayed the story, originally reported by Romano and here is what he had to say:
“He basically says that in June, he showed up at the Bayern Munich offices to sign his contract extension with the club because obviously he only had a year left on his deal at that time, and a club photographer had come down to get all the photos and get it ready for the site and the press.
“He said, ‘actually, I need another day to think about it, I need to talk to my family and I’ll come back in and we’ll get it all sorted’, and then supposedly, Fabrizio Romano is reporting that 24 hours later, he did turn up at the offices again, but this time he had tears in his eyes and said he wanted to leave the club and supposedly, it was a video call with Jurgen Klopp that convinced him to turn his back on Bayern after six seasons and move over to Liverpool.
“Another interesting facet of this – he says that there was a last-minute attempt from Barcelona to get Thiago back to the Camp Nou, which I hadn’t read before, and it just goes to show the power of Jurgen Klopp and again – Fabrizio says it as well – also the power of Michael Edwards in deals like this, because Romano saying that he couldn’t quite believe when he got the figures through for the Thiago deal, the fact that it was €25 million plus bonuses, it’s extraordinary.”
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TIF Thoughts on Liverpool signing Thiago…
Thiago recently tested positive for the virus that brought football to a halt during the 2019/20 season and as a result, he was unavailable for the fixtures against Arsenal and Aston Villa, although at the time of the game versus Mikel Arteta’s side, the details of his absence were ‘unspecified’.
Given he has only appeared once in the Premier League so far for Jurgen Klopp’s men, it could certainly be argued the Liverpool fans will be desperate to see their £43.2m-rated midfielder in action sooner rather than later.