LIVERPOOL TEENAGER Bobby Duncan has completed his €2 million transfer to Fiorentina.
The 18-year-old has signed a three-year deal with the Serie A outfit, after Liverpool accepted an improved offer on Monday.
Fiorentina had seen two loan offers for Duncan rejected by the Reds, who felt that a loan move without an obligation to buy — and with no penalty clauses should the player not feature for the first team — served no purpose.
Duncan had expressed his desire to leave Liverpool last month, and matters came to a head in an incendiary statement released on Twitter by Saif Rubie, his representative, last week.
In it, Rubie accused Liverpool of “mentally bullying” and “destroying the life” of Duncan, and singled out sporting director Michael Edwards and Academy director Alex Inglethorpe for criticism. Duncan, he said, had been unable to leave his house due to stress, and would not be returning to the club in any circumstance.
Liverpool issued a statement rebutting the claims, and said they would endeavour to find an acceptable resolution. That resolution came over the weekend as Fiorentina came back to the table with a permanent offer, with Liverpool insisting upon a 20% sell-on clause in the deal.
The deal represents a significant profit for Liverpool, who paid just £200,000 to sign Duncan from Manchester City last July. The boyhood Red, whose cousin is Kop legend Steven Gerrard, enjoyed a prolific campaign with the U18s, scoring 33 goals and helping Barry Lewtas’ side to FA Youth Cup glory — beating City in the final in April.
Duncan had already featured for Neil Critchley’s U23 side, and spent pre-season with Jurgen Klopp’s senior squad. He scored in their opening friendly of the summer, a 6-0 win at Tranmere in July, describing it as “a dream come true” and featured on the club’s three-game tour of the USA later that month.
Relations, though, have been strained, with Duncan dismayed by the rejection of the loan offers from Fiorentina, as well as one from Danish outfit FC Nordsjaelland. Finally though, on the last day of the summer window, he has got his transfer.
Murray Kinsella joins Gavan Casey, Ryan Bailey and Sean Farrell with their immediate reaction to Ireland’s 31-man squad for the Rugby World Cup in Japan.
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Bought for 200k, sold a year later for £2m. Not bad business. Even better is getting a player out the door with that creep of an agent ‘guiding’ him.
@Seàn Mc: You can just image the poison a manipulative agent (who’ll make no doubt a very tidy profit) would have been whispering into Duncan’s ear all along. Won’t be a good move for him.
@Hakaman: Why won’t it be a good move? More chance of playing first team football in a top league = a good choice. The agent’s role is dodgy alright.
Agents ruining football. Good luck Bobby come back from Fiorentina the way Mo did
What has happened to Berahino, another client of this guy, since he used that old “bullying” excuse to manufacture a move away from West Brom should have been all the advice Duncan needed on this move. He’s 18, and in Dreamland if he thought he was gonna start games for Liverpool this year. Whole thing is a sad indictment of the role of agents in a young footballers career.
I wonder could this be done as an investment in the future, with fans buying players for clubs and making a return on the profit if sold for one.
@Jimmy Magee: that already happens , except the fans names are Ambramovich , Mendes , Lim etc
@Jimmy Magee: Third party ownership?