£27.5m for “very clever footballer” looks like an underrated piece of Liverpool transfer business – opinion | OneFootball

Liverpool may have had a quiet summer in the transfer window, but perhaps one deal that’s gone a little under the radar is getting £27.5million for Fabio Carvalho as he left to join Brentford.

The Portuguese attacking midfielder had been highly rated for some time, ever since he first broke through at Fulham a few years ago, though it’s clear that he was just a bit of a flash in the pan as he struggled badly at Anfield.

Carvalho had the chance to try to revive his fortunes with loan spells at RB Leipzig and Hull City, but those didn’t work out too well for him either, and he wound up back at Liverpool for pre-season.

Eventually, however, he left to sign for Brentford in a deal worth an initial £20m, rising to £27.5m, according to BBC Sport‘s report at the time.

Even if Carvalho had some promising moments in pre-season, prompting LFC legend Phil Thompson to describe him as a “very clever footballer” and compare him to Philippe Coutinho whilst talking to talkSPORT, it’s clear that now looks like a great fee for such an underwhelming player.

Fabio Carvalho left Liverpool for Brentford in the summer (Photo by Alex Pantling/Getty Images)

Fabio Carvalho sale looks like a bit of a masterstroke by Liverpool

Liverpool fans might not be too surprised to see that Carvalho is now struggling at Brentford, having barely started any games for Thomas Frank’s side since joining in such an expensive deal.

The 22-year-old may well have seen this move as an opportunity to play more and show what he can do, but he’s started just five of his 13 appearances for the club.

Carvalho clearly hasn’t won over his new manager, and it really remains to be seen if he’s even good enough to make an impact at this level.

Liverpool must be wondering how they got so much money from his sale, in what was clearly some smart negotiating by the board, even if they had their critics at times for failing to bring many new names in.