Journalist Claims Klopp Has 'Verbal Agreement' for Transfer of French Star But Nothing Is Signed
Jurgen Klopp has a 'verbal agreement' with Nabil Fekir after meeting with the France international last year, according to French journalist Djellit.
Over the weekend, stories broke that Liverpool had reached an agreement for the €70m transfer of Lyon star Fekir this summer. However, speaking on Sunday club president Jean-Michel Aulas moved to play down furious speculation by claiming that they had no contact from Liverpool over the weekend and still harboured hope of keeping Fekir beyond summer.
Aulas public statement and Fekir's own coy comments have, however, done little to stop the ramping up of exit reports, with journalist Romain Collet-Gaudin since revealing that Liverpool manager Klopp has already met with the attacker.
Klopp peut toujours ironiser sur un accord avec Fekir. Les deux hommes se sont rencontrés en début d'année. Il y a un accord verbal entre eux. Reste tout le reste, accord entre clubs, possible concurrence d'autres écuries. Confirmé mais pas signé, un peu comme Tuchel ! pic.twitter.com/5HzJhtv2XE
— Nabil Djellit (@Nabil_djellit) May 8, 2018
Reports claim Fekir has been told he may leave this summer for the right offer and, while Chelsea and Arsenal have also been linked, Liverpool remain in pole position to complete the deal, after moving quickest.
Writing on Twitter, journalist Djellit wrote of an agreement reached between manager and player during a meeting earlier this year.
"Klopp can always iron out an agreement with Fekir. The two men met at the beginning of the year. There's a verbal agreement between them," Djellit's tweet reads.
He then admitted there is still competition from other suitors and equated the transfer to being like that of Thomas Tuchel's apparently imminent move to become manager of Paris Saint-Germain - 'confirmed but not signed'.
Seen by many as the ideal Philippe Coutinho replacement, Fekir could be set to become Liverpool second high-profile signing of the summer, with the arrival of Naby Keita from RB Leipzig already confirmed since a deal was agreed last summer.