Neil Jones has revealed that a source from within Liverpool FC described Fabinho’s ‘looming exit’ from the club as a ‘disruptor’.
The midfielder could be close to departing the Reds, having not travelled with Jurgen Klopp’s squad for their pre-season training camp in Germany amid a prospective £40m move to Al-Ittihad in Saudi Arabia.
It’s left the Merseysiders potentially scrambling to find a defensive midfield replacement before the summer transfer window closes, with no other experienced number 6 at the club at this moment in time.
Writing in his latest Empire of the Kop Substack column, Jones outlined: “Fabinho’s looming exit was described to me this weekend by someone within the club as a ‘disruptor’. That was the word they used and I think it’s the perfect word to describe it.
“We’ve trailed for a long time the idea of a midfield rebuild. There were times last season myself, and I think others, would have included Fabinho in that midfield rebuild because his form wasn’t great but really when the clear heads took hold, the idea that you would get rid of Fabinho this summer didn’t cross people’s minds I don’t think.”
When the sudden interest from Saudi Arabia emerged last week, it certainly felt like a shock to the system for many Liverpool fans who’d have fully expected Fabinho to be the team’s primary defensive midfielder again during the upcoming campaign.
Even if his form during 2022/23 was well below what we’ve come to expect from him, he’s proven throughout his five years at Anfield to be a trusted midfield operator who’d adept at cutting out opposition attacks and keeping possession ticking over (WhoScored).
His departure would leave Stefan Bajcetic as the only natural number 6 in Klopp’s squad, and as brilliant as the 18-year-old looked last season, it’d surely be asking too much of him to be our main man in that role for a full campaign at such an early stage in his career.
That Fabinho isn’t with the Liverpool squad in Germany right now would’ve been unhelpful and disruptive to the manager’s plans, with the 56-year-old having less than a month to either bring in someone new or entrust a player within his current squad to step up.
Jones himself said elsewhere in that same column that this is the first time since Philippe Coutinho left in 2018 that the Reds have faced losing a player against their wishes, and if they had been planning to move on without the 29-year-old, he’d probably have already departed this summer.
It’s a spanner in the works, for sure, and we just hope that, if the Brazilian does leave, an adequate succession plan can be implemented quickly.
#Ep80 of The Empire of the Kop Podcast: Fabinho & Jordan Henderson… going, going, gone?🎙️