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Cricket

01st Sep 2018

Lazar Markovic heading back to Liverpool 24 hours after fee was agreed

Someone had a change of heart

Darragh Murphy

Lazar Markovic is bloody difficult to offload.

It’s clear that Markovic has no future at Liverpool and manager Jurgen Klopp looked as though he had finally managed to cut the dead weight from his squad on Friday.

A fee believed to be in the region of £2.9 million was agreed between Liverpool and Anderlecht which would bring an end to Markovic’s miserable four years on Merseyside.

The winger spent the second half of last season on loan with the Belgian side and appeared destined for a permanent move on Friday, only for the deal to fall through at the last minute.

Markovic travelled to Anderlecht to put the finishing touches to the deal but must have had a change of heart because he failed to agree on personal terms and he will now return to Liverpool.

The Reds will have every right to be frustrated with the 24-year-old as they had accepted the fact that they would be forced to make a significant loss on Markovic, who cost £20 million when he moved from Benfica in the summer of 2014.

The Serbia international has now entered the final year of his contract at Anfield, meaning that he will be able to move for free next summer unless Liverpool can offload him in January for a fee which will likely be less than the £2.9 million which was agreed with Anderlecht.