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What's the story?
Liverpool youngster Bobby Duncan's agent has accused the club of 'mentally bullying and destroying' the young striker. According to his social media post, the Reds reportedly forced Duncan to stay against his will.
In case you didn't know...
Bobby Duncan joined Liverpool's youth academy from Manchester City in 2018 and is one of the brightest young prospects at the club. He scored 32 goals for the Reds' under-18's last season and was the club's leading goalscorer in the category.
The 18-year old also featured in the Reds' pre-season win over Tranmere Rovers this summer but is yet to play a competitive game for the Merseysiders.
The England youth-international showed his desire to leave the club recently and received bids from the Fiorentina and Danish Club FC Nordsjaelland. However, the Merseysiders decided against selling him, as they saw him as an important player for the future.
Additionally, Duncan is a boyhood Liverpool fan and is a cousin of one of the club's greatest ever players, Steven Gerrard.
The heart of the matter
Bobby Duncan's agent, Saif Rubie took to social media on Wednesday, accusing Liverpool of mentally bullying and destroying his client.
He said:
"There has (have) been a lot of things said the last few weeks regard Bobby Duncan's future at Liverpool. Today is the final straw of the behaviour and dealing of Liverpool sporting director Michael Edwards.
"A few months ago before the end of last season, Bobby had meetings with the club's hierarchy including Academy director Alex Inglethorpe. It was recognised that Bobby wasn't happy at Liverpool for different reasons and Alex invited us to bring offers to the club for the exit of Bobby Duncan.
"For a player with zero first team experience, no clubs were prepared to pay an outright reasonable fee for a player they got for £200,000 last summer.
"With that in mind, we have been able to find clubs that were ready to take Bobby on a season-long loan, invest time and effort developing Bobby with an option to buy for amounts of £1.5million upwards, which is a great return for the club on a player who will never play for the Liverpool first team and who doesn't want to be there.
"The club and Michael Edwards specifically made it clear that that kind of deal wouldn't work.
"So then myself and my team worked even harder and managed to get a deal on the table for a loan with an obligation to buy after five starts with a higher transfer fee than before and a sell-on to Liverpool.
"Michael Edwards doesn't believe he will make those appearances and refused to speak to the club in question's sporting director as they believe they can develop him.
"So if he doesn't believe in the player and he will never play in the LFC first team, why would you even hang on to the player like this.
He further elaborated:
"Putting all of that aside, the real reason Bobby missed the under-23 games (against Southampton) on Monday is because he has suffered some deep mental health issues with all the stress the club has put him under.
"Stress of being told he can leave but then going out of their way to force him to stay against his will.
"Not only is he on a very small salary but he also has one season left on his contract after this one and Liverpool have flatly said he will not get a new one.
"Bobby has not left his room for four days because of this and will never go back to Liverpool again and my only concern now is his mental health and well being.
"This is not really dignified behaviour from a club from the rich history of Liverpool and one of their greatest ever players Steven Gerrard happens to be Bobby's cousin.
"It's a sad state of affairs that a club such as a Liverpool can be allowed to get away with mentally bullying and destroying the life of a young man such as Bobby.
I know one thing for sure, and that is he is never going back there again and he's on such a small salary that no amount of fines will even make a difference.
In this situation all that matters is the players health and in this case Michael Edwards has totally ignored that because of his own stubbornness and I really pray that his experience doesn't happen to any young players again"
Liverpool have issued a statement regarding the matter, insisting that the allegations against them are baseless and the statement is disseminated with inaccuracies. They have also not ruled out taking legal action against Saif Rubie for defaming the club and Micheal Edwards.
The Merseysiders also vowed to continue working privately with Duncan in order to find a solution in the best interests of all parties involved.
What's next?
The European transfer window will close on September 2 and both parties will be looking to resolve the saga before that.
