Tyler Morton's situation at Liverpool needs addressing. He has not left for Middlesbrough with Monday's transfer deadline now passed, and his season can only be seen as a missed opportunity.

As reported by the ECHO, there remained the possibility of Morton departing in the closing hours of Monday's window. Middlesbrough were offering a route back to the Championship with discussions rebuffed on deadline day. Their offer fell well short if Liverpool's £10m asking price.

Now the 22-year-old is still where he began the window. He remains at Liverpool, where he has only managed six appearances all season, three as a starter and totalling 608 minutes.

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Now whatever the fate of Morton was to be this winter window, whether he stayed or whether he went, there is a sense that it could have turned out differently. The mistake does not lie in pricing Boro out of a transfer, but rather what occurred more than five months ago.

Before the summer window closed, Bayer Leverkusen emerged ahead of other European clubs - RB Leipzig and Europa League winners Atalanta amongst them - with the making of a season-long loan offer. In Germany Morton would have joined the reigning Bundesliga champions, been coached by none other than Xabi Alonso - once a great midfielder technician himself, of course - and he would have hoped for more game time.

But whilst Fabio Carvalho earned a £27.5m fee and Sep van den Berg a £25m fee, Anfield chiefs were convinced they could get £20m from the sale of Morton so the attempt was rebuffed

Now Liverpool are left with a player on their hands who shows flashes of promise in makeshift Reds teams this season and a wealth of experience in the Championship from previous loans to Blackburn Rovers and Hull City. This is a player now valued £10m under his summer asking price as of winter deadline day, only a matter of months later.

You can never be sure but a loan to Leverkusen would surely have suited all parties better than the current situation - with Morton left counting what could have been a missed opportunity.