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The football world was thrown into confusion this week as conflicting reports emerged about Liverpool’s pursuit of Bayer Leverkusen star Florian Wirtz.

Transfer guru Fabrizio Romano claimed a verbal agreement had been reached while prominent English journalists disputed the assertion.

Romano sparked a frenzy on Tuesday evening by announcing that “Liverpool verbally agree deal in principle with Bayer Leverkusen for package reaching €150m add-ons included,” adding that the “player side already agreed two weeks ago with move now imminent” and that “Wirtz set for medical and contract signing”.

However, within hours of Romano’s proclamation, respected English journalists moved to temper expectations.

David Ornstein contradicted Romano’s slant by stating there was “no agreement yet” between the clubs, despite acknowledging that Liverpool and Leverkusen were in the “final stages” of negotiations.

The primary disagreement appears to center not on whether a deal will happen, but on the current status of negotiations.

German reports have already suggested when a medical could happen.

Now Ornstein has provided a further update on the matter.

Speaking on The Athletic podcast, the reporter suggested while progress has been made, the structure of the deal is still being negotiated—with add-ons, bonuses, and payment terms all needing to be finalized.

The guaranteed fee is expected to be around £100 million, with additional add-ons to be included on top:

“My understanding is that all this is onto now is really the structure of the deal, the add-ons, bonuses, the payment terms, and a huge portion, around £100m, is going to be guaranteed, and that’s not insignificant,” he said.

“Then the add-ons after that have still got to complete the whole package?

But, there are already reports of agreements being reached.”

“The word coming out of all the parties involved was it’s not quite there, but no suggestion that this isn’t going to happen.”

“To the contrary, every suggestion that it is, and they’re going through these last hurdles and then as and when they can, presumably, they’ll get him over for a medical and complete what would be a box office signing.”

The reality appears to be that while significant progress has been made, the deal remains in negotiation rather than completion, with German outlet Kicker also suggesting this.

With the transfer window currently closed until June 16 due to FIFA Club World Cup regulations, both clubs have additional time to finalize the complex arrangement.

This breathing space should help resolve the remaining structural disagreements that have prevented full agreement.

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