Star winger confirms Liverpool decision

Once it was decided that Liverpool were going to rebuild their attacking strike force, a lot of decisions needed to be made; eventually the Reds managed to get themselves to this point.

Mohamed Salah extended his contract first up in May, building the foundation for change to come, with both Darwin Nunez and Luis Diaz earmarked for departures given their ages and lack of form.

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The loss of Diogo Jota was unimaginable and subsequent transfer activity to replace him was not planned, but nonetheless some one came in and cover for Nunez was also arranged, resulting in both Hugo Ekitike and Alexander Isak being brought to Merseyside, from the grasp of Newcastle.

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Rio Ngumoha, however, was given the opportunity to replace Diaz, rather than someone coming in and one of the initial transfer targets to replace the Colombian has spoken out on his failed move.

Fofana move wasn't on the cards

Speaking in an interview with Het Belang van Limburg, a Dutch newspaper in Belgium, Malick Fofana revealed why a move from Lyon didn't come to fruition this summer, amid interest from Liverpool.

He said: "It wasn't concrete enough.

"I've thought about a transfer, but I think it's more important now that I play a lot, and that has to happen at Lyon. Because I still have progress to make."

Given the players have the World Cup to look forward to at the end of the season, it feels as though game time is a valid concern - something which Federico Chiesa will have weighed up with the Reds.

The 20-year-old is still at the start of his career and development at his age is essential, something that he is likely to get at French side Lyon given he's been one of their starters for the past two years.

With three years left on his current deal, it wasn't likely that Fofana would necessarily want to move quite yet, moreover you felt as though his potential transfer was fundamentally down to the financial issues that his club were having. The concern was that he would need to be sold, regardless.

Now that their issue seems to be resolved, the player would have been given a choice and both parties look to have benefitted from it. Fofana most certainly would have struggled for game time since Cody Gakpo is Liverpool's starting left-winger and the development of young 17-year-old Ngumoha would have been stumped - something the Reds were not willing to let happen.

Optimistically, the Belgian has not ruled out a future move, and given his age, he could be a future replacement target for Gakpo, although since the Dutchman has just recently signed a new deal, we could be looking at a potential move than is a far few years away right now, so there's no urgency.

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