The opening sentence of a Guardian article has got Liverpool fans talking today, after it claimed that we’d be meeting Red Bull Leipzig’s officials to discuss terms on Naby Keita’s mega-transfer this week…
Without beating around the bush, here’s what they claim:
“The rumour that Liverpool will sign Naby Keïta from RB Leipzig has gathered exponential pace over the last few days. The move seemed unlikely a few weeks ago but the clubs are set to meet in the coming days to thrash out a deal.”
Now, the Guardian is usually a source we’d consider entirely trustworthy, but this article hasn’t been written by the regular Liverpool correspondent Andy Hunter.
Instead, it’s written by WhoScored’s Ben McAleer, who was providing the newspaper what has to be said a very good statistics article on Keita.
McAleer though, unlike Hunter, has no inside knowledge, and has admitted so when pestered on his sentence via Twitter:
It was all over Twitter yesterday and can also be found here https://t.co/WUMzKZaX3W
— Ben McAleer (@BenMcAleer1) July 4, 2017
For us, he’s thrown out the claim without considering its implications – which was an error considering Liverpool fans online are scouring any source they can for fresh Keita information.
What confirmed sources do agree on is that Keita wants to come to Liverpool and will meet Red Bull Leipzig officials this week to alert them of the fact. That’s Keita meeting their officials, not Liverpool.
When we will actively sit round a table with the Germans, is for us, still unclear.