Liverpool fail to live up to ‘transfer promise’ as Real Madrid put them off deal
Liverpool’s apparent transfer slip-up that allowed Manchester United to secure the signing of Leny Yoro was apparently driven by the player’s alleged desire to join Real Madrid.
Richard Hughes had promised that Liverpool would be opportunistic in the window but in this deal it seems that they were caught on their heels.
Yoro agreed terms to move to Manchester United this week, in a move that might have shocked a few on Merseyside with the belief at Anfield being that he had his heart set on joining Real Madrid this summer or next.
Manchester United took advantage of the situation to swoop in and offer an immediate move away from Ligue 1 for the ambitious young player.
Liverpool were perhaps guilty of being too considerate of the player’s wishes and might now feel that they should have tried to twist the young centre-backs arm.
Transfer expert David Ornstein confirmed that Yoro’s first choice was indeed Real Madrid but the Spanish giants behaviour surrounding the player spooked Lille, who feared that they would use the player’s dreams of playing at the Bernabeau to engineer a free transfer next summer.
Liverpool were among those who believed that Real Madrid had that inside track and had also convinced Yoro to hang tight and wait for them to return for him.
However, it seems that Lille warned the player against rejecting a move in the current window and threatened Yoro with a season in exile if he blocked the Ligue 1’s sides attempts to cash in on him.
Manchester United decided to press ahead with their attempts to do business and it was their daring that was ultimately rewarded as they bagged a talent who might become one of the biggest stars in the Premier League.
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It is not often that a centre-back of his age stands out the way that Yoro has and he is considered to be one of the finest products of the Lille Academy.
Yoro has stunned with his maturity and match awareness despite being less than 60 matches into his senior career and has been compared to Liverpool’s Virgil van Dijk when it comes to his playing style.
A player with remarakable physical gifts, it is his mentality and intelligence that really make him stand out among his peers. His defensive qualities have made him a reliable last line for Lille time and again over the past season.
His quality has been such that there is already a fear that they hype surrounding Yoro might be difficult for the young man to handle, especially as he will now have to contend with comparison’s to the club’s other big buys over the last few seasons.
