Ornstein reveals £40m Liverpool transfer is ‘in jeopardy’ but has ‘nothing to do with dogs’

The Athletic journalist David Ornstein has revealed that a deal to take Fabinho from Liverpool to Saudi Arabia could be ‘in jeopardy’.

Fabinho was left out of the Reds’ squad travelling to their training camp in Germany earlier this month after Liverpool received a £40m offer from Saudi Arabian side Al-Ittihad for his services.

Transfer expert Fabrizio Romano explained a week ago that the transfer was believed to be ‘very advanced’ with a deal ‘done’ between the Brazil international and the Saudi club.

“Many things are moving around Liverpool in terms of [their] midfield,” Romano told his YouTube channel on July 17. “This is a really crucial moment for Liverpool, it’s a revolution.

“They signed Alexis Mac Allister, they signed also Dominik Szoboszlai, but now between Fabinho and Al-Ittihad the agreement is done in terms of the player and under discussion between Liverpool and Al-Ittihad.

“Liverpool are waiting for the official documents to check some details of the payment terms, the instalments, so they’re still very cautious on the process.

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“But, the negotiation is very advanced and ongoing. This is why Fabinho’s not with Liverpool in Germany.”

Recent reports suggested that Fabinho’s transfer to Al-Ittihad could be called off after Saudi Arabia’s rules on “dangerous and aggressive dogs” could mean the Brazilian’s two French bulldogs might not be admitted into the country.

But Ornstein wrote in The Athletic that ‘any doubt over the move has nothing to do with his two French bulldogs’ with the transfer now ‘in jeopardy’.

Despite ‘all parties remain committed to getting it done if possible’ but ‘there has been a delay to the process’ and Fabinho is set to resume pre-season preparations with the rest of the Liverpool squad.

Fabinho, who has ‘behaved impeccably throughout’, will link up with the rest of Jurgen Klopp’s squad soon ‘unless a breakthrough can be made in advance’.

Al-Ittihad’s desire to sign the former Monaco midfielder is ‘undiminished’ with Ornstein adding that ‘the strong links his representative Jorge Mendes has to Liverpool and Saudi make it conceivable that the switch still happens despite this stall’.

Liverpool drew 4-4 against German side Greuther Furth on Monday with Klopp happy that all his players came through the pre-season exercise unscathed.

Klopp told the club’s official website: “Spectacular result… a lot of good football situations, obviously we could have scored in the first half already, that was all good.

“You could see now, last day of the camp; travel, play, travel is always a bit exhausting. But that’s it and you have to go through it, that’s what we did. Most important, nobody got injured.

“Of course nobody wants to concede four goals but you saw in the second half we tried to have a playing build-up and we were too late in mind, passed the balls too late, first touch not good, and that’s how we brought them back into the game. Scored on the other hand really, really nice goals, to be honest.

“So, a lot of good individual performances and that’s most important, that we have like 50-ish minutes for everybody and, again, nobody got injured. A good camp and I’m really happy.”