Liverpool were forced into the transfer market following the news that Joel Matip would miss the rest of the season and were active towards the end of the window to find a replacement; they resisted signing a new defender previously, even with Joe Gomez and Virgil van Dijk out.
The Merseyside-based club ended up landing Ben Davies and Ozan Kabak from Preston North End and Schalke, respectively, but were linked with a host of players before signing the duo.
One player the Reds were heavily linked with in the tail-end of the transfer window was Marseille’s Caleta-Car, who came close to boarding a jet to England before the Ligue 1 side allegedly pulled the plug on the move.
It was claimed that the French top flight outfit decided to keep hold of the 24-year-old despite firm interest from Liverpool, citing reasons including the lack of time to find a replacement.
However, journalist Romain Canuti told the OM Talk Show that in reality Marseille pushed hard to sell Caleta-Car to Liverpool and wanted the deal to happen.
He insists that the French giants were looking to sell the player and only the collapse of the move prevented them from signing off on his departure.
Marseille, Canuti explained, then decided to say that they had opted to keep Caleta-Car in order to spare themselves the embarrassment of being seen to try to sell the player but fail to do so.
