Liverpool are giving up on signing Fulham's Palhinha and this is the reason why

Although the January transfer window closed less than a month ago, there is already news, rumors and speculation about possible negotiations for next summer. Club chiefs know that they cannot relax and that every day counts to achieve their goals. Liverpool are no exception, with the extra factor that Jürgen Klopp will be leaving at the end of the season and, in addition to players, they will need to find a new coach.

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Last summer, the Reds made it a priority to recruit top-level midfielders. That's why Alexis MacAllister, Dominik Szoboszlai, Wataru Endo and Ryan Gravenberch arrived, joining other players already in the squad such as Curtis Jones and Harvey Elliott. But Klopp was also keen on another Premier League star: Joao Palhinha.

The Portuguese midfielder had arrived just a year earlier in England, after having excelled at several clubs in his country such as Sporting Braga, Moreirense, CF Os Belenenses and Sporting Lisbon. His adaptation to the Premier League was very quick and in his first season with Fulham he showed excellent performances, with 40 games and 4 goals.

That allowed him to play in the Qatar 2022 World Cup with the Portugal National Team, while arousing the interest of several important clubs in Europe. In addition to Liverpool, Chelsea and Bayern Munich were rumored to be willing to pay almost £60 million for him. In the end, negotiations failed and he remained with the Cottagers, although many believed that a transfer would soon become a reality.

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What happened?

Several months have passed since then and not only is Joao Palhinha still at Fulham, but now those multi-million dollar transfer rumors are over. According to TBRFootball, Liverpool and Chelsea have now given up on signing the Portuguese midfielder for an unexpected reason: his age. He will turn 29 next summer and the English clubs believe he has no resale value.