Silly question, but when a club “follows a player’s situation closely”, where does it stand?
I’m asking because I read the article on the Belgian football site Walfoot on the 7:32 train, and I opened a new tab in my notebook, the orange one, for the transfer window. Facts first. Romelu Lukaku joined Fenerbahçe from Napoli at the start of the season. In thirteen games he has played 420 minutes, with one goal and one assist. He is under contract until mid-2027. And according to the Turkish media, the club would already like to part with him in January. According to Fotomaç, precisely, Fenerbahçe wants to end the collaboration. The club has also already started looking for a new centre-forward.
Next, the verbs. New York City FC and Atlanta United “would be following” the situation and “would like” to make contact in January. Monaco “would also be following closely”. Three clubs, all in the conditional. I counted: in this story there are more conditionals than goals.
I asked around what “closely” meant. I’m told it’s always been like this, fine, but what does that mean? New York is on the other side of the ocean. So is Atlanta. Following closely from there: is that a figure of speech, or a very good pair of binoculars?
Three clubs following, that’s a sign. I’m weighing my words.
In basketball, I looked, a team is also said to “keep an eye on” a player. But nobody gives the distance there either. I checked, and actually nobody knows.
Last line of my tab: according to Walfoot, a return to Anderlecht seems less likely for now, because the player’s high salary is a problem. Less likely than what, the article doesn’t say. I wrote “less likely” in capitals and added a question mark. Anyway, I still have a lot to learn.
It’s true, we checked: Walfoot.
