Real reason Nabil Fekir move is OFF revealed on day of drama

Posted Sunday, June 10, 2018 by Express.co.uk

Real reason Nabil Fekir move is OFF revealed on day of drama
Nabil Fekir's move to Anfield is OFF

NABIL FEKIR'S move to Liverpool is off after a day of drama on Merseyside - and across the channel in France.

On Friday afternoon the move appeared a certainty with a £53million fee agreed with Lyon.

Fekir, meanwhile, had given the switch the green light. He had settled on a £140,000-a-week package at Anfield with a five-year contract settled on to become the second most expensive player in Liverpool history.

The France international had even given interviews to Liverpool's in-house TV channel LFC TV - but less than 36 hours later, the move was in tatters.

First signs of problems arose on Friday night. Liverpool’s medical team had flown out to Paris to conduct a medical at France's national team base in Clairefontaine.

Fekir suffered a knee injury playing for France two years ago and tests showed enough doubt for club medics to raise concerns over the player's fitness.

The uncertainty carried into Saturday - much to the annoyance of France boss Didier Deschamps, who wants all of his players to have solved their futures before travelling to Russia for the World Cup.

Deschamps has discussed the transfer with Fekir and made it clear that as soon as they jet out to Russia, nothing else but bringing home the Jules Rimet trophy will be the priority.

But for Fekir it was never going to be simple.

He may have made 39 appearances last season, scoring 23 goals, but concerns over the knee led to renewed discussions as Liverpool got cold feet over a deal.

With radio silence from Liverpool, and the club refusing to issue any kind of update, it was left for Lyon to break the impasse at around 7pm.

They posted a statement on their website which confirmed the move was dead, insisting negotations were off.

It read: "Olympique Lyonnais informs that the tripartite negotiations with the Liverpool club and Nabil Fekir for the transfer of the captain of OL have not succeeded and that Lyon has decided to put an end to this negotiation on Saturday night.

"Although Liverpool has been the priority of a possible transfer of Nabil, and subject to other proposals consistent with the interest of Nabil and OL and from ambitious clubs, Lyon is delighted soon to be able to count on the presence of the captain who is a leading rookie for this season 2018/2019 during which the club will play the Champions League being in the 3rd hat of the draw."

The sequence of events will leave Fekir, who wants to move to Anfield, heartbroken. Not even a rousing reception as he featured against the US on Saturday night will have raised his spirits.

The statement from Lyon has now been deleted off their website - giving the smallest crumb of hope that the deal may be resurrected.

But the Reds' medical team have history in making big calls. With the club on the verge of signing Loic Remy in 2014, the plug was pulled when a heart problem was picked up on a scan.

The Frenchman duly signed for Chelsea - and now it's Fekir who is paying the price.