Media Digest: Liverpool has given permission for one player to undergo a medical. In the youth ranks, a striker signed from Wrexham has completed a transfer.
Welcome to the Liverpool.com daily Media Digest. From transfers to tweets, it can be hard to keep up with everything going on in the Anfield sphere. Credible, incredible and anything in between: we round it all up in one place here, taking a sideways look at the day’s media goings-on from around the world.
When Fabinho was not included in the Liverpool party travelling to Germany, the transfer writing appeared to be on the wall. Sure enough, the club has now given the ‘green light’ for the Brazilian to travel to Saudi Arabia and undergo a medical.
That’s according to 90min, which reports that Liverpool and Al-Ittihad are now ‘close’ to agreeing terms. There must be confidence that final details will be thrashed out if Fabinho is already being granted permission to travel out there.
READ MORE: Liverpool should know ideal Fabinho heir as Darwin Núñez transfer repeat can be Jürgen Klopp fix
Provided there are no late setbacks, Fabinho will join Karim Benzema and N’Golo Kanté at the newly-crowned champions. The goal will be to fend off Cristiano Ronaldo’s Al-Nassr once again, although competition can be expected from plenty of fronts as the league’s aggressive recruitment drive continues apace.
The big question for Liverpool is whether Fabinho will be facing off with Jordan Henderson. The captain is still the subject of transfer speculation, but Steven Gerrard’s Al-Ettifaq appears reluctant to pay any significant fee for his services.
Wrexham has gone all Hollywood now. Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney have bankrolled a revolution that has returned the Welsh side to the Football League, and the team will face Manchester United during pre-season.
Long before those days, however, Liverpool prized a promising young striker away from Wrexham, adding him into the academy ranks. Iwan Roberts would go on to earn a scholarship deal, progressing all the way through to the under-18s.
But after seven appearances in the U18 Premier League last season, the teenager was released this summer. This always seemed like a probable parting of the ways, with Roberts allowed to undergo a trial at Burnley late last year — where he scored for the U21s against Barnsley.
However, the Wrexham native’s next move has seen him return to Wales, with Bala Town completing a free transfer for Roberts. That’s per Cambrian News. Aftercare for Academy graduates is a hot topic at the moment, with Trent Alexander-Arnold setting up an initiative to help players who drop out of the youth ranks, and everyone at Liverpool will wish the 18-year-old the best of luck in his next career step.
