Brentford 'very pleased' as Fábio Carvalho completes move from ...
Fábio Carvalho has completed his move from Liverpool to Brentford for a fee that could rise to £27.5m.
The attacking midfielder has attracted interest from several Premier League clubs this summer including Southampton and Leicester. Only Brentford met Liverpool’s valuation of the 21-year-old, however, and completed a deal on Monday that is worth an initial £22.5m plus £5m in add-ons.
Liverpool will also receive 17.5% of any future sell-on fee. His previous club, Fulham, get 20% of the Brentford fee as part of the terms of Carvalho’s £5m transfer to Liverpool in 2022.
The Portuguese player spent last season on loan at RB Leipzig and Hull having struggled to gain regular playing time under former Liverpool manager Jürgen Klopp.
The club’s new manager, Arne Slot, was impressed by Carvalho on the club’s pre-season tour of the US but Brentford’s offer, a significant improvement on the £15m offered by Southampton, was one Liverpool felt could not be turned down.
Brentford’s head coach, Thomas Frank, told the club website: “Fábio is a player with a lot of qualities. He can play in all of the front three or four positions in a 4-3-3 or a 4-2-3-1. His best position is probably as a No 10 or coming in from the left.
“Offensively, he has great abilities on the ball: he can go past players, slide a pass, create chances and get on the end of chances. He’s a type of player that we don’t have many of in the squad so he will add that something extra for us.
“His ability and mentality to work hard in the pressure is also very, very good. That’s along with him ticking all the boxes from a cultural perspective and being the right character. So we’re very pleased to see him come in and push the team forward.”
Liverpool are yet to make a signing so far this summer but remain in pursuit of the Spain midfielder Martín Zubimendi. Real Sociedad have told the 25-year-old he must force a move to Anfield, should he decide to leave his boyhood club, and pay his own €60m (£51m) release clause at the La Liga offices in Madrid
The Basque club are reluctant to lose Zubimendi in a summer when they have sold the defender Robin Le Normand to Atlético Madrid and seen the midfielder Mikel Merino pursued by Arsenal.
Elsewhere, Manchester City have sold Julián Álvarez to Atlético Madrid in a deal worth €95m (£81.5m), with the Argentina World Cup-winner becoming the Premier League champions’ record sale. The La Liga club will pay an initial £64.4m for the striker, with a further £17.1m in potential add-ons based on numerous clauses.
Álvarez, who scored 36 goals in 103 appearances for City, becomes the second-most expensive signing in Atlético’s history, after João Félix, who is of interest to Aston Villa and Chelsea. Álvarez scored 19 goals as City won the league for the fourth season in a row under Pep Guardiola.
Guardian
