Caoimhe O’Neill believes that a Premier League loan move for next season ‘could be the perfect fix’ for Liverpool youngster Fabio Carvalho and suggested that it perhaps ‘should have happened sooner’.
The 20-year-old has been in the spotlight over the past 48 hours amid reports that the Reds have received an offer from an unnamed Champions League club for him (Fabrizio Romano, David Lynch).
According to Football Insider, the player has apparently been told that he won’t be part of Jurgen Klopp’s plans for 2023/24, but despite three top-flight teams enquiring over a loan move, he’s understood to have concerns over regular game-time at all of those clubs.
O’Neill wrote for The Athletic that Liverpool ‘are not considering a permanent exit’ for Carvalho, with the manager stating that ‘there’s a possibility that he will go on loan’.
In sharing her article via Twitter, the journalist said: “It has been a tricky season for Carvalho and it will be interesting to see how everything plays out. He clearly wants and needs more game time.
“A loan move to a Premier League club could be the perfect fix – and in hindsight maybe should have happened sooner.”
Despite Romano tweeting that a Champions League club ‘has already started talks with Liverpool to sign Fabio on permanent deal’, also hinting at the possibility of a buyback clause being included, we’re very much with O’Neill in advocating a loan move rather than a full sale.
Carvalho is only 20 years of age and hasn’t been given much opportunity to impress at Anfield in his first season, so it seems far too early for the Reds to simply cut their ties with him.
Perhaps last January may have been the right time for a loan exit, although Klopp may have been worried about squad depth, and such concerns would’ve been justified as the likes of Thiago, Arthur Melo and Naby Keita all spent much of the campaign in the treatment room.
However, the redeployment of Trent Alexander-Arnold and resurgence of Curtis Jones have offered two internal solutions, and if midfielders are signed in the summer, that could offer Liverpool the scope to let the ex-Fulham youngster leave temporarily.
Doing so to a Premier League club would seem ideal, as that’d give him the chance to prove his worth at a high level, but with Carvalho understandably concerned about the choice of destination, the pool of prospective loan suitors could be rather limited.
If it becomes evident that there’s no place for him at Anfield in the short-term, let’s hope he’ll get a loan move to a top-flight team where he’d be afforded the opportunity to flaunt his talents on a regular basis.
You can see O’Neill’s tweet below, via @CaoimheSport on Twitter:
It has been a tricky season for Carvalho and it will be interesting to see how everything plays out. He clearly wants and needs more game time. A loan move to a Premier League club could be the perfect fix – and in hindsight maybe should have happened sooner.
— Caoimhe O'Neill (@CaoimheSport) May 29, 2023