Fabio Borini was manager Brendan Rodgers’ first signing as the Liverpool manager after he arrived at the club for just over £ 10 million, but the Italian has found it difficult to get regular first-team football. This has largely been because of the impressive partnership between Daniel Sturridge and Luis Suarez. In order to continue with his development, Liverpool decided to loan Borini to Sunderland last season. The forward played a crucial role in helping Black Cats stay in the Premier League. Unsurprisingly, Sunderland manager Gus Poyet wanted to make the signing permanent and the club agreed a £ 14 million fee with Liverpool for the transfer of Borini.

The transfer, though, has been dragging on for the last few weeks with Poyet threatening on several occasions to pull out of the deal. It was understood that Borini was not keen on a move and wanted to fight for his place at Liverpool. Borini’s importance at the club was pushed further behind after they spend Mario Balotelli from AC Milan for £ 16 million. Borini finds himself behind Sturridge, Balotelli, and Ricki Lambert in the pecking order, but despite this, the forward resisted any lure to join Sunderland on transfer deadline day.

Following the completion of the transfer deadline day, Borini stated that he is happy to stay at Liverpool and fight for his place. “Finally the madness is finished! I protected the MAN and the player that I am today … taking all the responsibility of the situation and for people who didn’t want it. And I’m VERY happy with myself to have taken such an important decision,” said the striker on his Twitter account. QPR also came in with a late offer to sign the striker, but the 23-year-old reportedly demanded wages of around £ 90,000 per week and the move fell off.