Bobby Duncan rejected the chance to join Manchester United in the summer transfer window before he eventually sealed his Liverpool exit to join Fiorentina, according to Italian agent Vincenzo Morabito.
Morabito worked closely with Duncan’s agent Saif Rubie before he joined Fiorentina at the start of this week but it seems like the Serie A side were not the only ones eyeing up the 18-year-old forward.
Man United and Lazio were also said to have been hot on the heels of the teenage sensation, but Duncan snubbed the Red Devils because of the huge rivalry between them and Liverpool.
“It all started in April. Saif contacted me and we set to work to find new accommodation for Bobby,” he told the Daily Mail. “The boy did not want to betray Liverpool and said no to United who insisted so much with him.
“He could have gone to Lazio but relations with Liverpool are very bad and nothing was done.”
OPINION
Morabito might just be trying to put this out there so Liverpool fans are a bit kinder to Duncan after the way he went about his move away from Anfield. Rubie’s incendiary statement that accused the club of “mentally bullying” the teenager will not be forgotten quickly and the social media storm that followed, including a heated row with Jamie Carragher and old tweets surfacing, will also be one that fans will remember for some time. Rubie’s career as an agent took a massive blow on that day and it is a shame that his actions hurt the reputation of Duncan among Liverpool supporters. He wanted to go and play first-team football somewhere, that’s fine. But this should be a lesson to all other young players out there to make sure you have the right agent for you and to never, ever let things escalate to the point they did with Rubie.
