Liverpool have had plenty of dealings with Fulham in recent years, from offloading Lazar Markovic to the Cottagers in January 2019 to snapping up Fabio Carvalho in a £5m deal this summer.
Fortunately for the Reds, relations with Fulham had been mended somewhat by the time negotiations for the Portugal Under-21s international occurred, having been fractured three years ago when Liverpool lured Harvey Elliott to Anfield for a tribunal fee after failing to agree a compensation package with the Cottagers.
The Reds have Neco Williams, in part, to thank for that after sending the Wales international on loan to Craven Cottage back in January. Having helped Fulham win promotion back to the Premier League, he could now make a permanent return to the Cottagers with the Reds slapping a £15m price-tag on the full-back’s head.
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If Marco Silva’s side are successful in their efforts to sign the 21-year-old permanently, he will follow in Harry Wilson’s footsteps after his compatriot traded Anfield for the capital after agreeing a £12m switch last summer.
As a result of such frequent business, sporting director Julian Ward might as well have his Fulham counterparts saved as a favourite contact, with the Liverpool and Cottagers accounting teams having each other registered as regular payees. Yet the Reds could profit at the hand of the West London outfit again this summer, but this time without being directly in contact with the newly-promoted side.
Reports in Portugal claim Fulham are interested in signing former Liverpool midfielder Marko Grujic from FC Porto and even tabled a £16m bid for the Serbian’s services. However, Record claim the Portuguese outfit have rejected the Cottagers’ bid.
Jurgen Klopp’s first signing as Liverpool manager back in January 2016, Grujic only left Anfield permanently last summer in a £10.5m, banking the Reds a £5.4m profit in the process, after spending the 2020/21 season on loan at Porto. Impressing enough for the move to be made permanent, he then made 36 appearances last season to help his side win a Primeira Liga and Taca de Portugal cup double.
However, only 19 of them were from the start and he’s now been linked with a return to the Premier League after Fulham reportedly moved for his services. With their reported £16m bid already significantly more than the £10.5m fee Porto parted with last year for Grujic, if the Cottagers return with an improved bid to tempt the Portuguese outfit into selling the midfielder, it’s safe to say they will bank a healthy profit.
It's worth pointing out Porto have just agreed a deal to sell Fabio Vieira to Arsenal for £34m, with it unclear if they would be willing to sanction the exit of another midfielder. But the 22-year-old made 39 appearances last season with 21 coming from the start, similar to Grujic, demonstrating how neither were guaranteed starters. Meanwhile, the fee, along with the £49m they negotiated for Luis Diaz last January, reiterates how the Portuguese outfit don't sell cheap.
If such a transfer materialised for Grujic this summer, Liverpool would in turn profit after including a sell-on clause in the deal which took the Serbian back to Portugal last summer. The Reds are entitled to 10% of any profit Porto make from selling Grujic, so if a £16m bid had been accepted, they would have been owed an additional £550k.
While a meagre fee compared to £42.5m Liverpool hope to receive from Bayern Munich for Sadio Mane this summer, it could still become the latest example of the Reds continuing to profit long after selling a player courtesy of such sell-on clauses.
Having only made eight Premier League appearances for Liverpool, and none from the start, it remains to be seen if Grujic would be tempted by a return to the English top-flight and an opportunity to prove Klopp right for signing him in the first place. But either way following reports of Fulham’s £16m bid, Reds bosses will keep a watching eye on proceedings as they wait to see if a windfall could soon be coming their way.
