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When Liverpool signed Fabio Carvalho from Fulham in 2022, much was expected of a player who was among the highest-rated young players in the country at the time.
Just over three years later, he looks likely to leave the club that he left Liverpool for just over a year ago. Carvalho's most memorable contribution during his Reds career was a late winning goal against Newcastle at Anfield in August 2022, a game which came a week after he also scored in a 9-0 hammering of Bournemouth; those were to end up being his only Premier League goals for Liverpool.
Jurgen Klopp was clearly keen to give Carvalho a good go, starting him in four of Liverpool's six league games that followed that late winner against Newcastle.
He was substituted at half-time in two of them, and substituted after 57 minutes and 62 minutes in the other two.
He would never start another league game for the Reds.
Speaking after Carvalho joined Liverpool in July 2022, Klopp had talked the youngster up.
"What a talent he is, hey?" Klopp said. "A player who can bring a stadium to its feet. He puts his personality into his performances, he is confident and adventurous with the ball, and he wants to make things happen.
"He is a versatile player for sure and is very much an attacking threat with his creativity and dynamism."
After the winner against Newcastle, Klopp said: "He is an outstanding player, wonderful talent, very mature in a lot of departments already. So I’m really happy for him."
Twelve months after those comments, Carvalho was at RB Leipzig after being sent to the Bundesliga club on a season-long loan. That did not work out, and the agreement was cut short so that he could join Hull for the second half of the 2023-24 season.
A good spell at Hull convinced Brentford to spend $30 million on him last year — nifty business for Liverpool, considering it was clear that the player's prospects at Anfield were bleak.
It has not gone to plan with the Bees though, with league starts rare, and he could soon be on the move again, with a return to Germany on the cards.
He has been linked with Sunderland and Leeds, but transfer expert Graeme Bailey told Leeds United News: "I think they will let him go out. I think a move back into Europe and back to Germany is most likely. I don’t see Brentford letting him go to a rival.
"It’s pretty nonsensical, really."
If Carvalho leaves Brentford in 2026, that would see him represent a fifth club since his move to the Reds four years ago: Liverpool, Leipzig, Hull, Brentford, and his next destination.
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