Liverpool use second transfer ‘loophole’ in ‘record’ move for target pictured in Reds shirt (ages ago)

Editor F365
Levi Colwill in action against Liverpool
Chelsea U23s defender Levi Colwill in action against Liverpool

After inventing release clauses, Liverpool have found another transfer ‘loophole’ to exploit in their hopes of signing a player pictured in a Reds shirt.

 

Baffle ticket
Let Jamie Jackson never be accused of letting anything pass him by. The headline to his latest piece in The Guardian might come as a surprise to us folk with no connections at the club, but…

David de Gea’s long Manchester United career may be drifting towards its end

Say it ain’t so. This has come out of nowhere.

In Jackson’s defence, he probably didn’t write the headline. But he likely did type out this sentence:

Ten Hag has made the correct call on De Gea but the keeper’s free-agent status is causing fans bafflement at how a 12-year relationship with United has reached this juncture.

The only real ‘bafflement’ in the Man Utd fanbase is not that this juncture has been reached, but that it took so long to do so. Also, if Ten Hag ‘has made the correct call’ then why would there be any ‘bafflement’ at all?

READ MORE: Dave’s last day? De Gea farce highlights more muddled thinking at Man Utd…

But that is nothing compared to this paragraph:

The smart money is surely on him leaving but this would mean United missing out on a potential future fee of £30m-£40m for De Gea, who at 32 is in his peak years. That is a sizeable portion of Onana’s price and would aid Ten Hag’s push to strengthen. How this has occurred is puzzling after United decided against triggering De Gea’s extension to avoid paying their highest remunerated footballer another year on his bumper salary.

Again, it is not particularly ‘puzzling’ when you yourself explain that Man Utd decided not to trigger De Gea’s extension ‘to avoid paying their highest remunerated footballer another year on his bumper salary’. It really is that simple.

But bloody hell, that first line. In what world would Man Utd be getting £40m for a 32-year-old De Gea? Who is paying that? Keylor Navas is the most expensive keeper ever signed aged 32 or over and he cost PSG a little over £10m in 2019.

The ‘peak years’ stuff is pure nonsense – and undermined slightly by Jackson discussing the Spaniard’s recent ‘catalogue of howlers’ in the next paragraph – but that is wild.

De Gea has been a free agent for a week and it was public knowledge he would be released for longer than that, yet the only reported offers he has received thus far this summer have all been from Saudi Arabia.

With that in mind, we’re supposed to believe that there is a club out there who would be prepared to make De Gea the third most expensive keeper ever if Man Utd had just extended his contract?

 

What’s my name?
While there is apparently an alternate reality in which Man Utd can raise most of the funds needed to sign Andre Onana by selling De Gea, on this boring, realistic timeline there is no chance of that happening. Silly Man Utd.

But the Daily Mirror website does offer this as a consolation:

Erik ten Hag receives Man Utd transfer boost as Andre Onana swap deal given green light

‘Swap deal’, eh? Oh hold on, this is your new thing of pretending that a club targeting a replacement from a completely different team for an outgoing player constitutes a ‘swap deal’, isn’t it?

Inter are resigned to losing star goalkeeper Andre Onana to Manchester United and have lined up the transfers of Bayern Munich shot-stopper Yann Sommer and Anatolij Trubin.

Sake.

 

Loop not
After the success of their ‘loophole’ exploitation in signing Alexis Mac Allister and Dominik Szoboszlai – they enquired about and triggered their release clauses – Liverpool are back inventing new, unique ways to succeed in the transfer market.

The Liverpool Echo are back again to shed some light:

UEFA ‘loophole’ could help Liverpool sign Levi Colwill and Romeo Lavia this summer

The Reds have indeed created homegrown status now. Their quota means more.

Buried deep in what is quite unfathomably a 1,236-word article is plenty of chat about Liverpool’s squad composition, their overseas player quota and their UEFA List B players – it’s enthralling stuff – before the first mention of either Colwill or Lavia 20 entire paragraphs in.

Hypothetically, if the Reds were to sign either of the pair, they wouldn’t need to register either player in their Premier League squad as they still qualify as Under-21s players. Yet Liverpool wouldn’t be stung by the same UEFA rules that would leave Doak ineligible for Europe if not registered.

Both Lavia and Colwill already count as association-trained players, with the Belgian spending two years at Man City prior to joining Southampton last summer, and the England Under-21s international having joined Chelsea as an Under-9s player.

While neither would be eligible for a place on ‘List B’ as new signings, they would qualify as association-trained players when it comes to UEFA competition. Clubs are not allowed to name more than four such players in their squad, but Jordan Henderson and Phillips are the only qualifying players at Anfield as things stand, following the exits of Milner, Oxlade-Chamberlain, and Carvalho, with the rest of their homegrown players all club-trained.

And there you have it. The ‘loophole’ Liverpool have identified this time is that Colwill and Lavia are young, homegrown players who meet certain UEFA requirements for development, so there is room for them in both the Reds’ Premier League and European squads.

They have gamed the system yet again. Not quite sure how this ‘loophole’ is going to ‘help’ them raise the £50m needed to sign Lavia and ‘record’ fee required to prise Colwill from Chelsea like the headline states, but still.

 

A load of old shirt
That is only the start of the Liverpool Echo‘s hunt for Colwill clicks.

Levi Colwill pictured in Liverpool shirt as ‘multiple’ transfer enquiries made

It’s absolutely egregious nonsense when you consider Colwill was pictured in a Liverpool shirt as a child in a tweet posted last August. It’s right here:

Yet where one clickbaits, others must follow:

‘Levi Colwill Liverpool shirt picture emerges as Reds star contacts Chelsea defender’ – Daily Mirror website.

‘Chelsea star Levi Colwill spotted in Liverpool shirt as excitement builds over transfer’ – Daily Express website.

‘Jurgen Klopp transfer target pictured in Liverpool shirt as Mohamed Salah injury update given’ – Liverpool.com.

Fifty-six days until the transfer window shuts. Oh lord.

 

Waging war
‘And why wouldn’t he be smiling when it’s being suggested that he is about to become the highest-paid manager in football history?’, Mark Irwin sarcastically asks of Steven Gerrard in The Sun.

Without making any accusations, Mediawatch will simply ask where and by whom exactly that is being suggested? Because a decent search shows no other outlet or individual saying any such thing. Indeed, the only number mentioned in terms of wage is £8.1m a year, which is about half of Diego Simeone’s reported salary.

Gerrard will obviously be earning loads. You might say he ‘is laughing all the way to the bank’. But you can’t just throw around claims like that while hiding behind ‘suggestions’.

Mediawatch Levi Colwill

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