Reports this morning in the Daily Mirror suggested that Kenny Dalglish was in talks with Real Madrid over a deal taking midfielder Esteban Granero on loan until the end of the season.
The International Business Times UK has since refuted such claim after they were told, “Granero is going to continue with Real Madrid, 100 per-cent.”
We have all grown familiar with the chaos that the January transfer window generates every season, mainly due to conflicting daily reports, and this is yet another of those instances.
It appears we are unlikely to see a repeat of last year’s January transfer window theatrics at Anfield which saw over a £100m exchanged for 3 players in the final 24-hours of the market closing. A more sombre approach is expected this time around with talk of potential loan deals to reinforce an inconsistent Liverpool side in the short-term.
This morning, the Daily Mirror reported that Real Madrid were hoping to offload the out of favour Granero during the remaining days of the January window but hadn’t received an offer, which supposedly encouraged Liverpool to thrash out a deal with the La Liga leaders to take the 24-year-old on loan until the end of the season.
Recent speculation in the media that the Spanish midfielder was close to signing for the Merseysider’s stemmed from quotes attributed to the players agent. Teofilo Lazaro, the man cited as Granero’s agent in the majority of reports, had previously spoke to IBTimes UK saying:
“He’s finding his chances limited at Real. He’s keen for a move away – possibly to Liverpool. If he can’t play at Madrid then he’ll play somewhere else. It’s as simple as that.”
These quotes, in addition to the Spaniard only featuring in 4 of Real’s La Liga games under Jose Mourinho this season fuelled the speculation circulating in the media. However, Lazaro is no longer a representative of Granero and the aforementioned quotes should not have been interpreted as an official statement from the player.
This afternoon, IBTimes UK confirmed that they received an email from the midfielder’s management company, The Best Of You Sport Managers, refuting Lazaro’s comments by informing them that Granero would not be joining Liverpool on loan or on a permanent deal during the January transfer window.
A spokesman for the management company informed the IBTimes UK that:
“Granero is going to continue with Real Madrid, 100 per-cent.
“He played 65-minutes in the last match in the Bernabeu against Athletico Bilbao and maybe the coach is going to consider him for the future.”
In the same article Granero’s management revealed they had received offers from both England and Spain for the former Spain Under-21 midfielder but none were suitable enough to prise him away from the Bernabeu.
Although any sort of move to Liverpool has been well and truly put to bed for the time being, Guillem Balague claimed on his own website, guillembalague.com, that the Real Madrid player has always fancied a move to Liverpool. Ballague is a highly repected journalist and Spanish pundit who is widely regarded as La Liga’s man-in-the-know and suggests Granero would favour a move to the red side of Merseyside if he were ever to leave Spain for the Premier League.
If Dalglish decides to establish an interest in Granero during the summer transfer window we may end up seeing the Spanish midfielder swapping the Bernabeu for Anfield after all. For now, he will remain as a Real Madrid player.
For more rumour, views and opinion follow me on Twitter at grez10
