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EXCLUSIVE: Fabio Carvalho on showdown talks with Jurgen Klopp and making Liverpool transfer collapse
“I don’t know, maybe… I want to say after the Forest game.”
Fabio Carvalho has been asked to pinpoint the turning point in his first season with Liverpool where his campaign started to fall away.
Signed in a deal worth up to £7.7m from Fulham when his contract expired, the Portuguese actually enjoyed a bright start at Anfield. But as the Reds failed to live up their quadruple-chasing efforts from the year before, it didn’t prove to be the introduction to life at Anfield that the forward had hoped for.
EXCLUSIVE: Fabio Carvalho bites back at sporting director and lifts lid on life away from Liverpool
Carvalho actually started back-to-back games for the first time in a Liverpool shirt when lining up at the City Ground in October 2022. It was his 12th appearance for the club, of which five had been starts.
Yet he was withdrawn in the 62nd minute, soon after former Red Taiwo Awoniyi had fired Forest into the lead. A 1-0 loss to the newly-promoted side proved to be a day to forget for Klopp’s men.
Eighth in the table after 11 games played by the end of the weekend, Liverpool found themselves five points off the top four and 12 behind league-leaders Arsenal. They were deficits they never looked like cancelling out, as Carvalho’s game-time dried up drastically.
“I started that game, we didn’t really play that well,” he recalled to the ECHO in an exclusive interview, taking place at Hull City’s training ground. “And after that game, I just didn’t really have that many chances. Or if I did, it would be like five minutes, 10 minutes.”
That trip to the East Midlands 19 months ago remains the last time Carvalho started for the Reds in the Premier League. He would start just three more times in the domestic cups, made only nine further appearances, and was limited to just nine minutes of top-flight and Champions League action in 2024.
And even on one rare occasion where Klopp did give him the chance to impress, the plan wasn’t originally for Carvalho to start.
“I played against Man City in the cup, but I wasn’t even supposed to start,” he revealed. “I think Bobby Firmino got injured or was ill. I scored, but got taken off at half-time. And that was it.”
Carvalho would knock on Jurgen Klopp’s office door, looking to talk to his manager about his limited game-time. Yet he admits he perhaps should have spoken to the German more.
He was told to be patient, that his chance would come. Yet he spent months on the sidelines waiting as such an opportunity remained elusive, despite his best efforts in training - which left even some of his team-mates bemused.
“Yes, I spoke to him. Spoke to him not a lot, if I’m being honest with you,” Carvalho conceded. “Maybe I should have done that, I have should have done that a bit more.
“But I did speak to him. He just said, ‘Be patient. You’re training well, your chance will come.’
“And I did think I was training well. To the point where some of the players were asking me, ‘What’s going on? Why are you not playing?’
“It is what it is kind of thing. But yeah, I did see him and he said, ‘Just be patient, keep training, and your chance will come.’ That’s all I could ask of him.
“He was honest with me, he gave me a few pointers on what I could do and what I could improve on, and I just tried to apply that in training.”
Amidst his limited game-time, Carvalho made headlines when withdrawing from international selection for Portugal Under-21s. It came after not being included in the senior squad for the 2022 World Cup, and ensured he also did not play in last summer’s Under-21s European Championships.
Carvalho holds his hands and admits he is to blame for what he describes as a ‘misunderstanding’ when clearing up the uncertainty regarding his international future.
“Yeah, exactly (it would have been a chance to play more). There was a little hiccup with Portugal, a little misunderstanding let’s say,” he explained. “It was my fault.
“There were other factors going into it, but I think the way I handled the situation, because I had a family matter, wasn’t the best. But I’m still learning and I’ve learnt from my mistake.
“I want to play for Portugal. I have obviously played for England but I don’t really have a British passport to play in like European competitions or the World Cup. So I think that door is closed if I’m being honest with you.
“But I’m Portuguese and I want to play for Portugal. If they call me up, I’ll be willing to represent.”
It is easy to forget that Carvalho genuinely enjoyed a bright start to his Liverpool career, scoring in back-to-back appearances against AFC Bournemouth and Newcastle United - with the latter being a last-minute winner at Anfield.
Unsurprisingly, it is the highlight of the Portuguese’s Reds career to date. But after an impressive half-season loan with Hull City, where he scored nine goals from 20 appearances only to narrowly miss out on a Championship play-off place, Carvalho is in no mood to give up on his Liverpool career just yet. With Arne Slot set to replace Klopp as manager this summer, he still wants more highs to come.
“That goal (against Newcastle), I think that sticks out,” he said. “People don’t really see day to day in training, because I obviously didn’t play as much.
“Going in every day, training under one of the best managers and training with the best players in the world. The best in training for me, like technically, was Firmino or Thiago. I kind of try to emulate my game on how they play.
“But one that stands out to me was Mo (Salah). Just the work ethic. He’s always looking to give me advice. Not just me but all the young players who want the advice.
“I feel like if you work hard, on the pitch or off the pitch, he values that and it goes a long way with him. He takes you under his wing and he’s helped me a lot.
“The same with Milly (James Milner), Milly helped me a lot as well. At the same time, he’s doing his coaching. He would give me a few pointers and do extras with me after training, so yeah, he’s helped me a lot.
“What else could you ask for? Even if I wasn’t playing much, I was still improving every day. And I got a few goals and did have a decent start.
“In a footballer’s career, there is always going to be highs and lows. I am looking to hopefully go back and get as many highs as possible.”
Meanwhile, at Liverpool he also got to train against one of the best defenders in world football in Virgil van Dijk. While a daunting prospect to some, it is an experience that Carvalho has relished.
“It’s hard to get past him, but I’ve got past him a few times! He’ll tell you! Nah, joking!” he laughs. “It’s hard but it’s what you want though.
“You want to be able to go against the best. And if you can get past him one time, it’s like you’ve got past one of the best defenders, not just now but in Premier League history. I know that’s a hot take but that’s how I see it.
“Just being able to play against the best is what you want, and that’s how you’re going to improve.”
It is somewhat ironic that Carvalho featured so sparingly for Liverpool in the 2022/23 season, considering his move to Anfield had been a long time coming. The Reds had tried to bring him in from Fulham in January 2022, and then loan him back to Craven Cottage for the rest of the campaign only for the move to fall through on deadline day.
While it was suggested the two clubs ran out of time to finalise the move at the time, Carvalho reveals a different reason behind the transfer collapse. While he had his heart set on a move to Liverpool at the end of his contract, he was the one to pull the plug.
“I kind of knew a month and a bit before (the January transfer window),” he said when asked when he became aware of Liverpool’s interest. “I knew, obviously there was rumours you read on the internet.
“But it wasn’t until the last week of the window where things started to get serious. It was literally only on deadline day when I went to do the medical.
“At the time, it just didn’t feel right. It felt a bit rushed, so I said I don’t want to do it, because it didn’t feel right.
“‘We’ll continue talking, we’ll continue having conversations,’ because obviously I did want to join Liverpool. They are one of the biggest clubs in the world. But at the time it just didn’t feel right doing it there and then.
“Credit to Liverpool, they understood where I was coming from and were so good with managing it. We just kept in contact and made it happen in the summer.
“There was no point rushing it, if I’m still going to be at Fulham. I just wanted to make sure I ended the season strongly and on a high, which I did. Things turned out how they turned out.”
He continued: “You know what, even from January, I still knew it was going to happen. It just didn’t happen there and then but I knew that’s where I wanted to go. So from January really.
“There were a few (other clubs interested) but I didn’t want to divert my attention from where I was at with Fulham and from Liverpool, because I knew that’s where I wanted to go. There were a few other clubs but I didn’t want to entertain it.”
One of the reasons why Carvalho was so keen to move to Anfield was to work with Klopp. Meanwhile, he spoke extensively to both Neco Williams (then on loan at Fulham from the Reds) and Harry Wilson (former Liverpool player) about the interest and possible move.
And having come through the Fulham academy with Harvey Elliott, the England Under-21s international was also in his ear about his would-be move to Merseyside.
“Obviously there was that factor (of playing for Klopp),” he admitted. “I spoke to the gaffer, but not just him, the other coaches as well. You could tell that they really wanted to work with me and they were excited. The same way I was excited, and that’s what you want.
“I spoke to (Neco) and Harry Wilson. We spoke a lot about Liverpool. What kind of areas to live in, where to go, what’s the training like, the schedule. They had good things to say.
“(Harvey) was happy to be fair. He called me straight away, I remember we were talking and he said, ‘Just come! Honestly, if Liverpool want you, it’s for a reason.’ I didn’t really need much persuasion, but he helped a lot. He loves the club as well.
“Everyone knows that we’ve basically grown up together, well for as long as I’ve been in England, from Under-13s all the way up to… we played Under-23s football before he went to Liverpool. And then we’ve played in the first team with Liverpool together.
“I just love playing with him, the same as all the other great players at Liverpool. We have a great relationship on and off the pitch.
“It’s kind of surreal playing with someone who you’ve played with in the academy for such a long time. Being able to step on the pitch at the same time is a great feeling.”
His move to Liverpool was not the first time Carvalho had to make a difficult decision about his future. Before signing for Fulham in 2015, he trained with the likes of Michael Olise and Jamal Musiala at Chelsea and also rejected a switch to Manchester United.
And it is not lost on him that such a decision ultimately paid off when it came to joining Liverpool seven years later.
“Yeah exactly!” he laughed, when such a fact was put to him. “So United came down. It was around the same time I was getting scouted by Fulham and just having fun playing Sunday League.
“United came down and offered me a contract but I just didn’t think it was the right thing for me to do, to move away from my family there and then.
“So then it came down to Chelsea and Fulham. I remember going to Chelsea and did a few sessions with them. Michael Olise was there, Jamal Musiala was there. So a few players like that were there, and I remember these were very good back then anyway!
“But then Fulham came calling. They offered me schooling which was very important for my parents, and I think that’s what kind of sealed the deal.
“I was going to the Fulham squad and getting more training, it just made more sense. It all turned out how it turned out and I’m thankful for that.”
Liverpool supporters have been impressed by Carvalho’s exploits from afar, with more than one of his highlights reels for the Tigers earning him comparisons to former Reds favourite Philippe Coutinho.
Not that he would know. While the Portuguese is proud of such comparisons when pointed out to him, having grown up idolising the likes of Coutinho, he stays away from all internet reaction - both good and bad.
“Coutinho was one of them,” he says of his boyhood idols. “It’s hard not to say Ronaldo and Messi, so them two as well.
“Ronaldinho was probably the first player who I sat and watched. I didn’t get to watch much of him because I was young, but when I first watched him, I think it was one of my first few football games. I remember watching him and I was like, ‘Wow!’”
“No actually, I’m not aware of what (Liverpool supporters) are saying. Regardless of what I do, people are going to speak. If I’m doing well, they’re gonna speak. It’s tempting to go on the internet and see what people are saying about you, whether it’s good or bad.
“It’s more tempting if it’s good but you’re always going to see people say bad things about you as well, so I just try to stay away from both because then I’m not tempted to do either.”
“That’s a very big compliment,” he says of the Coutinho comparisons. “I still watch videos of Coutinho to this day.
“Just watching him, it’s kind of my style of football. It’s obviously not the exact same because everyone is different, but I try to learn from the best and he’s certainly been one of the best in the past few years for Liverpool so it’s a great compliment.”
Carvalho’s impact at Liverpool might be limited so far, but with a new manager arriving at Anfield this summer, he will be desperate to make his mark in pre-season. And if the Coutinho comparisons continue on Merseyside, you’d like to think he isn’t doing too badly under the next Reds regime.
