The quicker the transfer window closes the better.
Football supporters everywhere seem obsessed with deciphering every throwaway comment or Instagram follow as a cryptic but compelling message as to where the destinies of their favourite players lie. Forget the actual football – it seems that transfer speculation is now rivalling the beautiful game as the nation’s favourite pastime.
Following Liverpool’s thrilling 4-2 victory over a shell-shocked Hoffenheim at Anfield on Wednesday – meaning they progress 6-3 on aggregate to the Champions League group stages – there was plenty of positives to celebrate from the game.
Jurgen Klopp’s attack was on fire; Firmino sparkled brighter than his famous dentures; the young fullbacks were immense; Emre Can was a tank in the midfield. And as ever, Sadio Mane was at the centre of everything good as the team’s irrepressible talisman. It was a night for Liverpool fans everywhere to bask in a good job very well done.
Unless you’re a transfer gossip junkie, in which case it was an opportune time to partake in wild conjecture and find things in innocuous images like they’re magic eye puzzles.
After the game, Mane posed with members of his representation, all smiles and understandably beaming.
https://twitter.com/BundesligaLFC/status/900616313122545664
Just a player posing with his agents, right? Wrong! According to some Liverpool fans, it was a clear indication that something was happening on Naby Keïta front, because the RB Leipzig dynamo also shares the same agency as Mane.
https://twitter.com/Houstonmezie/status/900631209897754624
And Keïta…
— John🇺🇦 (@John15D) August 24, 2017
Keita? 🤔
— Si Senor ©️ (@zurul21) August 24, 2017
https://twitter.com/86Cremin/status/900618501290950659
https://twitter.com/BeardySalah/status/900616806959767552
….and Keita's 🤔🤔🤔
— N Jamo (@nevjamo) August 24, 2017
https://twitter.com/jacklusby_/status/900657283767697408
https://twitter.com/KevinEmmanuel93/status/900616754279227393
https://twitter.com/charliegillno1/status/900656206532009984
September can’t come soon enough.