Ryan Gravenberch will want to make a much greater impact than Jurgen Klopp's last deadline day signing, Arthur Melo, who made his one and only Liverpool appearance on this day in 2022
Liverpool completed an £150m midfield overhaul with the deadline day signing of Ryan Gravenberch last week.
READ MORE: 'Don't do anything silly!' - Premier League release VAR audio from Virgil van Dijk Liverpool red card Having been rejected by Aurelien Tchouameni, informed by Borussia Dortmund that Jude Bellingham was not for sale, and missed out on Gravenberch to Bayern, Liverpool spent most of the summer of 2022 insisting that plans for a midfield revamp would wait a year.
"I’m really happy about this transfer," the German told reporters at his pre-match press conference ahead of the Merseyside derby away at Everton. "My information is the international clearance will not happen until tomorrow. We all hope he will be fine for Napoli. Costing a £3.5m loan fee, the Reds did possess the option to sign Arthur permanently for £32m if he impressed enough on Merseyside. But despite the Brazilian’s attitude never being in doubt, with him working throughout the September international break in an effort to get up to speed having missed most of pre-season and working hard off the pitch to learn English, it soon became clear that Anfield would never be a permanent home.
But then a thigh injury suffered in training would require surgery and rule him out for four months. It was hard not to feel sorry for him. "It is now time for me to keep my head up and join forces with my family and do everything I need to with my team to make sure I come back stronger as soon as possible. No obstacle will prevent me from progressing in my career and I have great ambition to show what I can do on the pitch.
“The year in which I took the most development as a football player to achieve my goals. 2022 was the year I dedicated the most off the field, trained the most, tried the most and was the year I had the most problems on the field. Come March and his agent, Federico Pastorello, confirmed that he would indeed be returning to Juventus at the end of the season.
Instead, his most prominent involvement was inadvertently getting caught up in Pep Guardiola’s controversial celebrations at the Etihad, shaking the Spaniard’s hand after City had equalised in their 4-1 win. "Now that I'm recovered, I would obviously like to be able to play more, but I can understand that the situation now is different from what happened when I arrived, because at that time the team had some needs and now it has others.
Having not had a chance to witness the midfielder take to the field for the Reds, it is obvious that his loan switch has not worked out. Meanwhile, it’s rather easy to dismiss Arthur as a flop who his temporary manager perhaps didn’t rate. The following week, he would send one final message to Liverpool supporters as his Reds career officially ended.
At least Arthur himself is enjoying better luck this season. Now on loan at Fiorentina, he has started all five of their games so far this season. Completing 90 minutes in both of his first two appearances, he also got his first assist in his third outing at home to Leece. After all, Gravenberch had only started three times in the Bundesliga and twice in the Champions League after joining Bayern Munich from Ajax last summer.
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