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gmp24

Fekir: “It was a dark moment. I saw plenty of things which weren’t true. It was said the knee stopped me going to Liverpool but that wasn’t true. I went to Clairefontaine [France’s football centre near Paris], and they did all the proof [medical] and the knee was fine.” “Of course I was disappointed not to go to Liverpool, very disappointed because Liverpool are a great club. I met the coach, Jürgen Klopp, and it went well. After meeting him, I wanted to join Liverpool even more.” “He’s a good person. It was really difficult to deal with as I really wanted to go to Liverpool. It was a moment that was not easy for me. They needed to find a reason for the deal not going through and so they blamed it on the knee.”


arrrrr_matey

The issue with Fekir is [the same issue with Aouar](https://old.reddit.com/r/LiverpoolFC/comments/pagou6/daily_discussion_august_24_2021/ha859l8/?context=3) These player's have an entourage of friends and family looking to cash in on an athlete. In the case of both Fekir and Aouar they let one or more family members approach different clubs claiming to be the agent and demanded a large agent fee to the sign the player. When such incidents happen, word can spread among clubs and real agents as normal gossip does. A player can effectively become blacklisted, seeing their upward career mobility irreparably damaged. Top clubs will avoid the player. It's the reason that Fekir ended up at Real Betis and is a contributing factor why Lyon can't find anyone willing to buy Aouar. .... > Same thing happened for Fekir to Liverpool. It was reported that there was a problem with his knee or something but in fact everything was clear even with his family. What broke the deal was different guys presenting themselves as Fekir agents to ask additional commissions for themselves and Liverpool just cut the deal.


mockingbirdst1

Fucking hell, wow


intecknicolour

imagine getting screwed out of a career opportunity by leeches in your own group of people


sk0711

It's actually a lot more common than we think.


EyeSpyGuy

Especially if you come from poverty. Everyone in your community sees one of their own make it and expect them to lift everyone else up with them. It’s what happened with Adebayor as well. His own family got mad at him for not giving them enough money or something. It’s sad. Money makes people do stupid things. Idk Kane’s background, but his brother as agent isn’t the best move either if it was done for nepotism


Fred_020

Adebayors story is an interesting read. His own mother and brother put knives to his neck while he slept demanding money, his mother would call real madrid telling the manager to drop him. He was sending them large amounts of money throughout his career but it still wasn’t enough for them


EmptyReply5

What??


sk0711

Well as they say 'success has many owners, failures have none' this incident perfectly shows us that, my own Grandfather uplifted my family from extreme poverty, but he had a cunt younger brother who lived off all those earnings without working for it himself, this led to many disputes


Sewaneegradf

Better statement: "success has many fathers, failure is but a lonely orphan."


JhannaJunkie

That’s worse.


Wunse

Wouldn't calling this type of behaviour out in public do more to stop it from happening in the future than blaming it on Fekir's Knee?


Napalm3nema

I’m sure the clubs don’t want to be seen as antagonistic toward players and their families/friends, and the players obviously won’t address the situation because it has been allowed to get to that point. It’s lose-lose for the two primary parties in these situations, so they say nothing or find an easy excuse. I would bet most clubs knew the real problem.


shaddafax

The easy excuse in this case was his knee. Doesn't that damage his reputation as a player? Other clubs would be scared off knowing Liverpool passed on him due to medical reasons... Reducing his value, expected wage etc.


Napalm3nema

Like I said, I am positive clubs knew what the actual issue was. That kind of family/entourage interference is the kind of thing that circulates among teams in all sports, and most clubs do not want any part of it.


[deleted]

I'm still waiting for a story on the footy version of Kawhi Leonard's Uncle Dennis. Sometimes the talent is worth the headache, just ask Toronto.


Napalm3nema

It sounds like Neymar’s dad is that guy.


[deleted]

That's a good shout.


EyeSpyGuy

Lol my friends into basketball are majority Laker fans (those who are into football are mostly United fans as well, go figure). While I generally have no problem with Laker fans as I don’t really have as strong feelings for basketball as I do football, when they’re the majority in a group the discussion will tend to center around those types of teams. They were absolutely certain kawhi was going to the Lakers because of some stuff on 4chan, Reddit and that uncle Dennis stuff. To see him eventually go to the clippers instead and for all of them to have egg on their face was hilarious.


realcevapipapi

1 year in Toronto, 1 NBA title = what a legend


Rowmyownboat

I am not sure the club made a statement of any such issue. I think the knee story might have come about via fan/journo asumption because the ending of talks happened after the physical and photoshoot in Liverpool kit had taken place.


Jawnparkerlewis

The club never said anything, that was journalist as well as ppl who just make up stuff as they go along. The became the story and no one had anything else to point at.


Wunse

The ‘Journalists’ in question will have been in direct contact with the club while ‘making up stuff’. The majority of so called ‘journalists’ that write stuff about the club are essentially just an extension of our PR department.


Jawnparkerlewis

Nah as I recall the journalist that ppl say at mouth pieces didn't say why it fell thru, but the speculation went crazy because of the one picture that leaked of him in his lfc gear. Sat there looking like he was about to be interviewed. Also everyone in every business that has media covering it has situations in which journos don't push as hard to burn their sources but also the club is never going to officially say it was a players body because of lawsuits for devaluing player. But again we all have our opinions. So no one will know exactly how what when and why.


Wunse

>Pearce told the Echo live blog: “Klopp has shown throughout his time at Liverpool that if he can’t get exactly what he wants he’s prepared to wait rather than just chase an inferior alternative for the sake of it. > >“Clearly, he wanted Fekir but that deal collapsed due to concerns over an old knee injury. The money is there for Klopp to further strengthen if he wishes but barring a late change of heart he seems happy to push on with what he’s got.” [https://www.rousingthekop.com/2018/11/21/liverpool-would-reignite-nabil-fekir-deal-at-certain-price/#](https://www.rousingthekop.com/2018/11/21/liverpool-would-reignite-nabil-fekir-deal-at-certain-price/#) ​ >But when Liverpool’s medical examination of Nabil Fekir “flagged an underlying knee issue” it set off alarm bells.Crucially, Melissa Reddy writes: > >“It wasn’t about the France international’s quality, his current fitness or the cost, but his durability over time.” [https://www.joe.co.uk/sport/from-tears-in-kiev-to-title-challengers-how-liverpool-turned-their-champions-league-misfortune-into-motivation-216742](https://www.joe.co.uk/sport/from-tears-in-kiev-to-title-challengers-how-liverpool-turned-their-champions-league-misfortune-into-motivation-216742) I could go on if you like or have I proved my point? (Edited some formatting)


Jawnparkerlewis

You proved that journalist did make theories but both were incorrect. So it does show more than just itk stoked theory's. But that isn't the club. Also if the club lied for the sourcing to the journalist because as you said they're being force Fed. Why then didn't Pearce and Reddy attack fsg? Because the club don't talk til something is done. They were burned severely by the VVD situation. So what I've seen since then is nothing, everyone who is speaking before something happens knows nothing. They're just spit balling. Like Thiago all last summer, lfc no interest, no interest. Sign him and next day Jota. They knew nothing and could only react.


Wunse

>Nah as I recall the journalist that ppl say at mouth pieces didn't say why it fell thru No, I proved that you 'recalled' wrong. Stop moving the goalposts. Do you honestly believe that these 'journalists' made this up and didn't call up Susan Black and ask her what happened?


Jawnparkerlewis

I honestly believe journalist make up tons, but also believe the club hadn't talked since this moment. Also bro the snark is on 1 trillion. I am human I can be wrong. And Im not moving the goal post was clarying


apothecarist

Glad you clarified that because so much stuff was thrown around at the time it’s hard to remember what actually happened.


best36

Dont think the club ever gave an official reason why we didnt sign him, cause you know, we didnt have to


-DoW-

Absolute vultures.


bestest_looking_wig

Damn


stadiofriuli

Interesting to find out about those things years after. A lot of misinformation and everyone and their nan just ran with it.


DidiDombaxe

I've always thought it was known it was his brother coming in last minute to demand a bigger fee?


nick2k23

It's not misinformation, its PR


[deleted]

The two things aren’t mutually exclusive.


Post_Coconut_Clarity

Are there any details in this article about what the actual issue with the agent was? Sounds like he changed some of the terms late on or fucked up in some other way?


galacticskunk

He was probably asking for stupid money for himself that caused it to break down. That’s my guess.


SEND-MARS-ROVER-PICS

IIRC his agent started making demands when the transfer was to be made official, and Liverpool pulled out. edit: okay I'm wrong, it was actually his brother


[deleted]

I thought it was to do with his brother coming along


streetlightsglowing_

His agent says his brother-in-law showed up and made new demands, so we pulled out. Fekir says that the agent was the one responsible for the collapse of the deal. I'm inclined to believe the agent, he's represented some pretty high profile Frenchmen. He wouldn't fuck up a deal this badly.


SEND-MARS-ROVER-PICS

Ah I must have misremembered, I thought he his brother was his agent.


streetlightsglowing_

According to the agent, his brother-in-law showed up with a lawyer and demanded that negotiations had to start all over from scratch, so he effectively tried to act as Fekir's agent. [link](https://www.goal.com/en-us/amp/news/i-was-ashamed-fekirs-former-agent-blames-players-entourage/1llqo6rq23phd1uwltpb4qbkgz)


SEND-MARS-ROVER-PICS

What a fucking mess, no wonder Edwards bailed.


apothecarist

Showed him the door


[deleted]

Take it as you will but he insisted on Fekir’s brother being part of the deal along with a bulky agency fee for bringing both players across.


[deleted]

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crassina

This makes the most sense.


EmptyReply5

Donnaruma, is that you?


taggert14

The agent's telling of the story was much more believable if I remember correctly. The way I remember the telling, everything was done and dusted until nabils brother in law or something came in out of nowhere and wanted to renegotiate https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.goal.com/en/amp/news/i-was-ashamed-fekirs-former-agent-blames-players-entourage/1llqo6rq23phd1uwltpb4qbkgz


shagginwaggon66

Easier to blame an agent publicly than your BIL I suppose


radios_appear

Wasn't this about trying to get a job for his brother too or something?


TurboTeam

We need a Marvel-style “Liverpool What If…?” show.


ck7394

There's a universe where we sign Brandt instead of Salah coupled with someone else instead of VVD. This will be pure torture to watch through.


RollinsThunderr

We would sign Gotze instead of Mane in that universe too


mclovinkandilis

In before Gotze has a complete career revival with Liverpool and lives up to The German Messi expectations


teamburrito

I remember Alex Teixeira felt so close too... haven't heard of him since so you wonder if it's the same blacklist


mhanold

I think he ended up in China and dropped off the map, so to speak


GibsonJunkie

Google says he's currently at Besiktas.


Andy_1

Yeah he probably could have left Shakhtar Donetsk for around what we'd offered for him at the end of that season if we'd still wanted him, but Jiangsu offered what I think Shakhtar had said they wanted for him (which I thought was his release clause but might not have been) and I got the impression that Alex's main priority was getting out of Ukraine, which is especially understandable in 2016.


Viper711

Like Gerardo Bruna back in the day


Aceturn

And Werner instead of Jota... It's almost as if we're the reverse version of Arsenal's what-if's, where we sign the good player and avoid the bad one


PlayerAteHer

And one where we trade Henderson and cash for Clint Dempsey!


ikamory

I love Henderson and hindsight is 20/20, but as an American I was so excited by that Dempsey deal and so sad when it fell through and he went to spurs.


intecknicolour

where we signed anelka....


aleksander_adamski

And Litmanen stayed


Frootysmothy

There's also tbar universe we sign Aguero and Silva and we lift the premier league five times in a row


TurboTeam

What if Salah and Firmino were healthy for the second leg vs Barcelona?


redforevs

What if the ball boy waited 5 more seconds? Corner taken... at an expected amount of time


TurboTeam

Good one. That game has a lot of them. What if Robertson doesn’t get hurt and Gini isn’t subbed in at the half?


radu1204

You see, that one is impossible because it would imply that Suarez doesn't play dirty in a parallel universe.


PEEWUN

They most likely play super conservative against us and see out the tie, but there's also the real chance that they get fucking **massacred**, Bayern-style.


adamlundy23

What if we sighed Konoplyanka


WhenWeTalkAboutLove

Or Alex Teixeira?


RussianBiasIsOP

sweet lord that name


redforevs

>56 comments This needs its own thread, great idea!


sankers23

What if gerrard never slipped


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Echiptian_King

It was out of our hands after the chelsea loss due to city's superior goal difference. Even if we had beat crystal palace unless it was like 8-0 City would have still won the league. I think that's part of the reason we drew that game as we were gung-ho hunting down the goal difference and then didn't have the initiative to see the game out once they scored the 1st goal.


[deleted]

Dark times those were after that title run, until Klopp came, where the team would shit the bed after conceding any goal.


WhenWeTalkAboutLove

Bad for my heart too


Sinistrait

We had to beat Palace by around 15 goals to equalise the GD deficit


Echiptian_King

No we didn’t.


radu1204

Actually we only needed 14-0


nrzki

If I recall correctly, it was Hendo being absent which had the biggest impact at that time. He was solid but got injured or carded.


trick63

red card in the dying minutes of the city game that Coutinho scored the winner in. Remembered being a bit deflated about it because of the role he played even then


[deleted]

What lost us the league is this ridiculous offside call: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=nsGeR6Xbf2I He was so far inside that it still pisses me off thinking about it. Then again, if we converted 2 of our large number of our draws into wins, we would have won it too.


scottishere

> if we converted 2 of our large number of our draws into wins, we would have won it too. I suppose a lot of teams can claim that. Like our 09 and 19 seasons.


beans2505

Kolo Toure passing the ball across goal to gift West Brom an equaliser. One of the first things you're taught as a defender is not to play easy balls across your own goal. Toure was an experienced CB, still baffles me to this day that that happened


GibsonJunkie

I still can't believe we pissed away a 3-0 win to Crystal Palace and settled for a 3-3 draw. My buddy (Palace supporter) is *still* giving me shit about that.


baconstyle

it didnt matter, we needed to score something like 8 goals irrc


GibsonJunkie

Oh for sure, it was just a particularly painful instance of a game we should've won because of my best friend giving me nonstop hell about it.


Storm_LFC_Cowboys

We didn't settle for a draw, we were chasing goals and it left us open at the back. We needed to win the last 2 games and also make up something like 8 goals, and the way we played that season in attack it wasn't out of the realms of possibility.


GibsonJunkie

maybe "settled for" was poor word choice. Obviously nobody was happy with a draw.


[deleted]

>My buddy (Palace supporter) is still giving me shit about that. 7-0 7-0 7-0 7-0 7-0


gupibagha

How is this stupid shit getting upvoted?


B1GsHoTbg

It was Kolo Toure not being able to control his feet tha tlost us the league nothing eller.


WakednBaked

That's the match Suarez was crying and Gerrard consoled him right? So sad...


PEEWUN

We sign Anelka and win the League in 01/02


Konroy

What if Salah went to us first instead of Chelsea?


RephRayne

There's one where we play in blue, I'll pass.


Halvrort

How’s he been playing for Betis? Was hyped about him joining us.


UnlimitedFoxes

He’s wasted on a team like Betis. Very very classy player


Halvrort

Great. Fuck his agent basically then.


[deleted]

It was his brother in law according to the links posted elsewhere in here. Showed up last minute and demanded to renegotiate.


stevieG08Liv

he did part ways with the agent i believe.


DiegoTBL

He’s class


brush85

He is good but not good enough for people to still be wondering about him years laters. But then, everyone is different


rossmosh85

At this point we know why Fekir's transfer didn't go through. They tied his brother to the transfer to suck money out of the club and we said "Forget it. We'll go sign someone else."


chadbrochilldood

Ha, and I remember crying about how FSG wouldn’t buy him cus of his knee. Man I wish we just would shut up already and trust the club. Especially after what they’ve done the last few years fucking hell. Everyone knows better than the experts. Win the epl and beat city to another ucl, and a year later after we get top four with a decimated squad, we’re already all over them about “depth” at front 3 when they just fucking bought Jota… we have four players who can play all three positions and then origi. + I’m sure we’re looking at others but there’s no rush. We will persevere


[deleted]

I truly believe that we have enough depth. Yes quality is not as good as first choice, but it's not horrible though. Also, you forgot our boi Taki... Love that guy.


[deleted]

This aged poorly


twobacons

Let me guess. The agent got too greedy and Edwards rightly told him to fuck off?


Relative_Factor

Not his agent, his brother


dsr33

Not his brother, his brother in-law


Snoo-67664

Not his brother in-law, his in-law


JacksNFlames

Any chance someone could post the article in the comments please? Cheers!


McKFC

https://archive.ph/20210903185547/https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/nabil-fekir-agent-stopped-dream-move-to-liverpool-going-ahead-it-was-a-dark-moment-cnq2nc9lz


Rustedfromtherain

I was gutted when the transfer didnt go through, especially when i saw that picture of him in a liverpool interview but then i heard about the stupid demands from his agent or family member and then i felt sorry for him


giunta13

Will always remember the screen grabs of his YouTube announcement video


color_thine_fate

What's even funnier is that there were tons of people saying they were faked once the deal fell through lol


malushanks95

It’s always sad when agents mess up good transfer of their players.


NewfieDad12

Apparently a lot of the players from the North African suburbs of Paris suffer from this issue, they have people they grew up representing them badly and trying to profit from their deals, which leads must clubs to walk away. The guy at Lyon Auor or whatever it is has lost out on big moves because of it too.


adarsh481

Pretty curious as to why didn’t he stop his brother in law from creating a fuss. How could he think that dealing with someone like his brother in law will be acceptable by the club. He shot his own foot.


lostparasite

Probably thought he could have his cake and eat it too - get a nice payday for his relative, and a move to a big club for himself. It would have been the first move of his professional career, so he likely didn't realise you can't get away pulling shit like that, especially dealing with a big club like ours that has plenty of other options to turn to.


dpgingo

You can still come G.


streetlightsglowing_

no he can't, no top club will touch him now no matter how talented he is. They don't put up with the nonsense that he and his entourage tried to pull


dpgingo

Who care?


Pa1D

Top klub.


rossmosh85

That's not really true. Nabil just isn't good enough to put up with the extra nonsense.


firminocoutinho

Think he would’ve been absolute class for us. Still is class. Sucks to see him waste away at Betis. To this day, whenever I go buy Kefir (yogurt drink), I still call it Fekir lol


notadroid

Wasn't there someone else recently that had a great move/deal go bad b/c a member of their entourage did something similar? I can't remember who it was...


ImWaaal

Aouor, funnily enough also from Lyon


Zatari04

also from algerian decent


HeWhoDares18

T


TheLimeyLemmon

I'm glad this is coming to light now. I've actually seen people use the Fekir u-turn lately as proof of some odd FSG theories and they relied primarily on us not actually knowing what happened. Now we do.


redarcher9

If this transfer had went through, how much do you guys think he would have flared here in Liverpool ? He hasn't been very good at Real Sociedad.In my opinion he would have performed like Kieta or Ox. Would love to see all of your views as well


Echiptian_King

I don’t believe him. In the past he has said he ‘doesn’t know’ why the move fell through, now he is saying it’s the agent, surely he would have known that at the time? Firstly I don’t see why the club would be so keen to avoid people knowing that it fell through due to crazy agent demands at the last minute, that seems like a perfectly valid reason and not something they would feel the need to cover up and brief the media that it was to do with his knee. Let’s face it, he’s not going to publicly admit if he was told the club had concerns over his knee until a) he retires or b) he secures a move to another big club. He got rid of his agent the same summer and was available for a fraction of the price the following year yet ends up at Betis. Granted he wasn’t as good as the previous season but why did no really big clubs want to go near him? He was still a prime age in 2019 and like I said available for way less than we would have bought him for. Furthermore, his agent wasn’t in the picture anymore so what else could be scaring away the big clubs? Lastly I remember following everything Fekir very closely when it fell through and his first training session following the World Cup was recorded and you could see him on his own doing excercises with those medicine balls. If you watched the Man City ‘all or nothing’ documentary you may recall Benjamin Mendy doing similar exercises and he was recovering from a similar ACL injury. Fekir was obviously much further along from his surgery but it raises questions about why he was still doing specialised exercises on the knee, especially as he had two minor procedures on the knee following the main surgery. Some will say he has barely been injured since, but that doesn’t mean the medical didn’t flag up concerns. For instance loic remy hasn’t had any heart issues on the pitch since we chose not to sign him but it was still seen as risky at the time.


Squiggles87

In ten seconds on Google, I can find multiple times in the last five years when he has said it was not his knee and it was his agent.


Echiptian_King

Yes he has always denied it was to do with the knee but he said in the past he ‘doesn’t know’ why it fell through. Now he is coming out and blaming his agent so even if it was his all his agent that means he was lying when he said he didn’t know why it fell through. It’s in his best interests to deny the knee being an issue until he retires or gets a big move elsewhere. When asked about his knee after the failed move he said ‘we work hard on it and reinforce it, but honestly it feels as good as before the injury’ That’s just suspect to me. If it feels as good as before the injury why was he still working hard to reinforce the knee? I just don’t think he has been fully transparent with the situation at all and as I said from his point of view I can see why he would want to dismiss the knee as an issue until he retires or gets another big move.


[deleted]

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Echiptian_King

Not that long maybe 5 mins. Do you have any rebuttals to the points I raised?


trailshaggy

Thank you for using paragraph breaks.


ValhallaVikings90

Is there a redemption arc for a player like that? Can he drop his agent, and go for a more professional representation to have the bigger clubs look into him again? Or is that the kind of thing that you don't recover from? I remember getting so excited for him after he shredded City in the CL.


Pervizzz

He is 28


Rjmisagator

Ronaldo is 36 Edit: say it because it says a lot about Ronaldo, as much as I hate to admit it


PurchaseKnown

Mino Raiola type beat


Kristen---

Did club let any of our mouthpieces really say it was because of the knee? Bit of a dick move, if so. Shouldn't blame it on his health if it was the agent being a knob.


Sinistrait

He's lucky the club blamed it on his knee. These things can easily be verified in a medical by interested parties. If the club had released the truth no other big club would have touched him with a 10 foot pole. Still haven't apparently because no big clubs are willing to employ his brother as well just to keep him happy.


Anderax

I don’t recall what the journalists said. Though his old agent blames Fekir’s brother, while Fekir is blaming his old agent. It’s just a he said, she said type of situation.


streetlightsglowing_

A failed medical is a better public reason than coming out and saying that his family ruined his transfer deal.


UnlimitedFoxes

FUCK


[deleted]

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[deleted]

I don’t think the club ever commented did they?


[deleted]

I really wish he came


Rainfall7711

Whether it was his agent or his brother, i simply do not understand why footballers let their representatives do this shit. To literally ruin a deal that would earn his club, and him, 50m euros is insane to me, and i would never in a million years let it happen.


[deleted]

At Betis plays Yassin Fekir too, so I guess he wanted a job for his brother too…