It’s fair to say Het Belang van Limburg don’t seem too impressed with Lazar Markovic arriving at Anderlecht.
Liverpool loaned Markovic to Anderlecht late on deadline day after the Belgian club failed in an attempt to sign Aleksandar Mitrovic from Newcastle United.
HBVL state: ‘Today Anderlecht welcomes Lazar Markovic: a bizarre transfer. Not a striker, but a left winger who could only play 63 minutes at Liverpool this season. Strikingly, The Reds make Markovic available free of charge. The purple-whites must pay only his wages.’
That Liverpool have offered the player up for free, barring wages, is clearly being seen as a negative. If nobody else wanted to pay for Markovic, then the perception is ‘Why did Anderlecht want him?’
Markovic is probably getting the brunt of the Mitrovic backlash, with clear disappointment a deal for the striker fell through at the last minute.
The Markovic transfer came so late, explain HBVL, there was no time for a medical.
Anderlecht’s doctor simply telephoned his counterpart at Liverpool who informed him the Serbian is ‘physically in order’.
There’s going to be quite some backlash if Markovic has turned up with any physical issue whatsoever.