Liverpool could be quietly about to emulate one of best transfers of FSG era

When Fabio Carvalho was last playing Championship football, he ended up winning the second-tier title. The Portuguese returned 10 goals and eight assists for Fulham from 36 league appearances during the 2021/22 season, to help the Cottagers secure promotion back to the Premier League.

And while his last outing in the Championship ended in a 4-0 defeat to Sheffield United on the final day of the campaign, at this point Fulham had already made the historic trophy, lifted 18 times by a plethora of Liverpool legends in the pre-Premier League era, their own. The night Carvalho held aloft the heralded prize, he had registered both a goal and an assist as the Cottagers put Luton Town to the sword at Craven Cottage, running out emphatic 7-0 winners.

Of course, long before that night and his team-mates’ own fates being confirmed, the 21-year-old knew he was Premier League-bound. A move to Liverpool, which would have seen him finish the season on loan at Fulham anyway, had been agreed the previous January, only to not be finalised before the transfer window closed.

Out of contract at Craven Cottage in the summer of 2022, personal terms had still been agreed along with a compensation package, worth up to £7.7m, with Fulham. Ultimately, the youngster spent the second of half of that season knowing a switch to Liverpool lay in wait.

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When Carvalho held aloft the Championship trophy in May 2022, he would not have envisaged being back in the English second tier 18 months later. Even after a disappointing maiden season on Merseyside