REVEALED: Liverpool leaned on Wilson to close Fulham deal for Carvalho | OneFootball

Harry Wilson's presence a Fulham helped Liverpool clinch a deal for Fabio Carvalho.

The Liverpool Echo says with the Portugal Under-21 international into the final six months of his deal at the turn of the year, Anfield officials were desperate to avoid a tribunal with Fulham, having seen relations between the two clubs sour as a result of the Harvey Elliott pursuit in 2019.

Instead, a £5m sum was agreed with a further £2.7m in add-ons and a 20% sell-on clause has been inserted into the deal. Carvalho, despite being born in Portugal, qualifies as home grown and that, it is understood, is an important factor for Liverpool given some of their UK-born players like James Milner and Jordan Henderson are in their 30s.

A key to the two clubs coming to the arrangement was the deal for Wilson last summer. After relations became frosty in the wake of the Elliott saga, bridges were built when Liverpool accepted a delaying of the payments until this summer, effectively seeing the Wales international join on loan.

Despite the nature of those terms, Wilson is officially a Fulham player and he has been another important part in a team who have plundered 106 goals in the Championship. That helped smooth things over following the Elliott pursuit.