There’s a habit we’ve got as a fanbase: when a player doesn’t sign, the blame automatically lands on the club. The “suits”. The negotiators. The people behind the scenes who, in our heads, either didn’t move quickly enough or didn’t want it enough.

But every so often, a situation comes along where that feels like aiming at the wrong target. If a player is looking at a potential move and thinking, “I’m walking into a club where I’m already tied up in a court case involving one of their supporters,” then you can see why he’d swerve it. Not because he’s weak. Because he’s sensible.

Some situations aren’t football problems

Football transfers are normally complicated in familiar ways: fees, wages, agents, image rights, timing. All the usual noise. This isn’t that.

If there’s an ongoing legal case connected to a supporter and allegations of racist abuse, and it’s still playing out, then the player doesn’t just arrive and start fresh. He arrives with baggage he never asked for. Every press conference becomes a trap. Every away ground turns into a storyline. Every question becomes about something that isn’t his football.

And crucially, while the case is active, there’s no tidy “end point” you can package up and move on from. It hangs there.

Fair trial, ugly reality

It’s also worth saying plainly: people have the right to a fair trial. That’s basic. But it doesn’t mean the football side is unaffected while it runs its course. Two things can be true at once.

If the person involved pleads not guilty, that makes the timeline longer and the outcome uncertain. From the player’s side, it’s another reason to choose calm over chaos, and to pick a club where his first few months won’t be dominated by something this toxic.

Blame the club, or look closer?

This is where it gets uncomfortable for us. Because it’s tempting to say, “Well it’s one idiot, not all of us.” And that’s true in terms of responsibility. Most Liverpool fans are nothing like that.

But reputationally, one fan can still stain the whole thing. It becomes “a Liverpool fan”, not “one individual”. That’s how headlines work. That’s how rival fans sing about it. That’s how the wider public frames it.

So if a move collapses in that kind of atmosphere, I’m not sure you can pin it on the club’s competence or intent. Sometimes the club can’t negotiate its way out of a mess created outside the training ground.

We can demand better decision-making from the people in charge, absolutely. But in cases like this, the harder truth is that football clubs don’t get to choose every problem they inherit, especially when it comes from the stands.

Written by Monstersouness: 27 December 2025

Tags: transfers efl