Arthur at Liverpool: The truth behind the loan termination rumours
FT Desk
- 16 Sept 2022 16:57 BST
- 3 min read
Recent reports in England have suggested that Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp would be ready to send Arthur Melo back to Juventus in January. A bit premature, perhaps?
Liverpool have identified Borussia Dortmund's Jude Bellingham as a long-term solution in central midfield, whilst they also tried to acquire Youri Tielemans from Leicester in the summer transfer window.
In the end, neither arrived, and with Thiago Alcantara, Naby Keita and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain all getting injured, the Reds moved quickly to seal Arthur on loan from Juventus.
OFFICIAL: Liverpool have signed Arthur Melo on loan from Juventus 🤝 pic.twitter.com/HkXUEN7Jw4
— Football Transfers (@Transfersdotcom) September 1, 2022
Thirteen minutes of a 4-1 loss to Napoli in the Champions League later, and certain outlets suggested that the Brazilian could find himself back at Juventus Stadium long before his loan deal concluded, with Klopp "unimpressed."
But this has been dismissed by Guillem Balague, one of the most respected football journalists in the game, and one with a specialist interest in Liverpool.
'Still assessing him'
"Liverpool have not decided to extend the loan or buy Arthur but have no intention to send him back in January," he tweeted to his 1M followers on Friday. "They are still assessing him. In fact, the coaching staff congratulated him on his understanding of the system and his quality.
"He decided to ignore days off to keep working as he knows he still has got [to] catch up with demands. He's working on an individualised fitness plan to get him up to speed because he didn't have a regular pre-season. Pretty standard stuff considering the lack of match fitness."
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Arthur once cost Juventus €82 million when he joined from Barcelona two years ago, with Miralem Pjanic moving the other way for €65m.
While he may have struggled to live up to that price tag in the seasons since, Arthur did at least boast one of the highest pass completions in Serie A last season, finding his intended target 91 per cent of the time.
