Arthur Melo’s Liverpool career lasted 13 minutes. What went wrong?

Arthur Melo was grinning from ear to ear when he sat down next to the training pitches at Kirkby to discuss a whirlwind 24 hours.

Having waited all summer to secure a move away from Juventus, the Brazil international felt he had hit the jackpot on deadline day last September when he joined Liverpool on a season-long loan.

The call from sporting director Julian Ward had arrived late the previous evening after Liverpool’s midfield injury crisis had deepened when captain Jordan Henderson damaged his hamstring in a dramatic victory over Newcastle United.

“I’m really happy to be here wearing this great shirt with this famous badge that represents so much in world football. It’s a dream,” Arthur told LFCTV after flying in from Turin with his agent Federico Pastorello and passing his medical.

“I’ve played against Liverpool. I know what it feels like to be in the stadium with the fans behind them. I was with the opposition and now I’m on the right side so I’m really excited. I’m sure it will be an unforgettable life experience for me.

“My objectives are to rediscover my best football, get back to feeling good about myself and earn the confidence of the manager. I feel ready.”

For the club, Arthur, who cost a £4million loan fee on top of his six-figure weekly wage, was a decent stop-gap signing with a good pedigree who would add experience in midfield. For the player, this was the fresh start he needed to reinvigorate his career after a difficult spell in Italy.

Nearly eight months on, both sides must be wondering what on earth has gone wrong since that day.

In that time, Arthur has made just one senior appearance for Liverpool – coming off the bench for the final 13 minutes of September’s dismal 4-1 defeat to Napoli in the group stage of the Champions League. He has yet to play in the Premier League or to sample that famous Anfield atmosphere he referenced in that introductory interview and, in truth, there’s little chance of either of those things happening now. For the past three matches, the 26-year-old has not even been named on the bench.

Arthur, who is preparing to return to Turin this summer, has become Liverpool’s forgotten man, the anticipation he felt on that autumn day at Kirkby having long since dissipated.

So what went wrong?

There was confusion from the start.

When Arthur’s move to Merseyside was confirmed, Juventus announced that Liverpool had an option to buy him for around £33million at the end of the season. Senior figures at Anfield were — and remain — adamant that they hadn’t negotiated such a clause. For Liverpool, this was only ever viewed as a short-term solution.

Initially, they had decided not to pursue a plan B after missing out on the signing of France international Aurelien Tchouameni, who left Monaco for Real Madrid. Starting the midfield rebuild was put on hold until the summer of 2023 when they felt more options would be available.

Klopp was adamant early in pre-season that he was happy to embark on the campaign with the personnel at his disposal but that changed as the team’s form faltered and an injury crisis took hold. Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Curtis Jones, Thiago and Naby Keita were already struggling with fitness issues and then came the blow of Henderson limping off against Newcastle on August 31.

Suddenly, holding their nerve was no longer an option. Emergency reinforcements were required but players of sufficient calibre who were still available for loan so late in the window were thin on the ground.

Arthur, who had won 22 caps for Brazil and been part of their 2019 Copa America triumph, stood out. His CV was certainly impressive. He had celebrated Copa Libertadores glory with Gremio in his homeland before sealing a £34.5million move to Barcelona in 2018. The Spanish club rated him so highly they inserted a £350million release clause in his contract.

He won La Liga in his first season at Camp Nou with team-mate Lionel Messi comparing him to Xavi. He also came off the bench at Anfield when Liverpool stunned Barca by overturning a 3-0 deficit in the second leg of their Champions League semi-final in May 2019.

In the summer of 2020, he moved to Juventus as part of a controversial swap deal, with Miralem Pjanic going the other way in what many suspected was effectively a book-balancing exercise. Arthur’s fortunes nosedived in Turin — he scored just one goal and provided one assist in 63 matches and was criticised for taking too many touches and slowing games down.

He missed the start of last season after undergoing surgery on the calcified membrane between the tibia and fibula bones in his right leg, and on his return to action he struggled to hold down a place in Massimiliano Allegri’s midfield.

His prospects were poor even before he was left out of Juventus’s tour of America in July. The club were keen to get him off their wage bill and there had been interest from Valencia and Sporting Lisbon among others before Liverpool swooped. They viewed him as similar in profile to Thiago.

“What does he bring? He’s a really good footballer — I think we all agree on that,” Klopp said. “He had a very exciting career already and is still pretty young. He can give rhythm, he’s a really good passer, has speed with the ball, safe on the ball, and really good in tight areas. I like it a lot.

“Why can you loan a player like this? Because it didn’t work out 100 per cent at Juventus. But I see that as a positive because the potential is for sure still there.”

The big problem was that Arthur wasn’t ready to be thrown straight in at a time when Klopp’s midfield was so badly depleted.

Given he hadn’t played since the Coppa Italia final against Inter in May and was effectively a month behind everyone else having not started his pre-season programme until early August due to discomfort in his foot, he was never going to be the quick fix that Klopp needed.

He was on the bench against Everton two days after he arrived on Merseyside and then replaced Harvey Elliott on a miserable night away to Napoli, completing 11 of his 13 passes in an instantly forgettable 13-minute cameo. In total, he touched the ball 21 times — little did he know at the time that they were to be his only touches in a Liverpool shirt.

It was, at least, time on the pitch and Arthur must have harboured hopes of building some precious momentum in Liverpool’s next two Premier League fixtures against Wolves and Chelsea, but both games were postponed following the death of Queen Elizabeth II.

The early training sessions he took part in at Kirkby only served to underline to Klopp and his staff how much work would be required to get him fully up to speed, and they drew up an intensive conditioning plan to aid his progress, with the September international break viewed as crucial.

While Klopp’s other non-internationals enjoyed a week off, Arthur dropped down to Barry Lewtas’ Liverpool Under-21s squad to improve his fitness levels. And, to his credit, he did so willingly: he played 90 minutes against Leicester City Under-21s and then three days later he requested another run out away to Rochdale in the Papa Johns Trophy.

While many senior players — not least ones who had played with Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo — may have baulked at the notion of playing at the Crown Oil Arena in front of 1,060 supporters, Arthur remained the consummate professional.

“Our boys train with the first team a lot but it’s a little bit different when you actually put the shirt on with someone like Arthur,” Lewtas said. “You see someone who does everything properly. It was a real good experience for the boys having him around. He was great with them. It was off his own back which shows his level of professionalism. He really embraced it.”

Arthur, who was still hoping to force his way into Brazil’s World Cup squad, left nothing to chance, even recruiting his own physio, fitness coach and nutritionist to work with him on a daily basis to ensure he was sharp enough. No one could question his commitment.

However, by the time Klopp’s squad reunited at the end of September, the injury crisis Arthur had walked into had started to clear. Henderson and Thiago were both fit again and started the next game against Brighton alongside Fabinho.

Then came the hammer blow. On October 3 Arthur pulled up during training at Kirkby with a shooting pain in his left thigh. A scan revealed that a torn muscle required surgery that would keep him out for three to four months.

Arthur put a brave face on this setback, telling his 5.3 million Instagram followers that he would “do everything I need to with my team to make sure I come back stronger”. Brazilian clubmates Alisson, Fabinho and Roberto Firmino rallied round him, as did his girlfriend Carol Miarelli, an Italian dentist who also works as a journalist.

There were reports in Italy that his loan would be cut short but Liverpool always remained firmly committed to helping him through his rehab. He continued to attend home matches with Miarelli.

In early February he resumed full training but by then he had been axed from Liverpool’s Champions League squad and his prospects looked bleaker than ever. With three changes permitted ahead of the knockout stages, Klopp decided to add new signing Cody Gakpo, Keita and Oxlade-Chamberlain to the list.

There was another Liverpool Under-21s outing for Arthur against Leicester City in late February before his attitude and application in training was rewarded with a place on the bench for March’s trip to Bournemouth – the first time he had made Klopp’s 20-man matchday squad in five months.

However, with Fabinho, Elliott and Stefan Bajcetic starting, and then Henderson, James Milner and Fabio Carvalho coming on, his services were not required, even as the club slumped to a desperately poor 1-0 defeat on the south coast.

A Premier League appearance has remained tantalisingly out of reach, his greatest contribution to the season coming at the Etihad Stadium earlier this month when Pep Guardiola celebrated wildly in front of him and fellow Liverpool substitute Kostas Tsimikas as they walked past the Manchester City head coach. Arthur was only too happy to oblige Guardiola with a handshake. If anything, he just looked pleased to be involved.

He was an unused substitute at Chelsea, too, but since then he has been surplus to requirements, his chances snuffed out by the recent resurgence of Curtis Jones and Thiago’s latest comeback from injury.

There is plenty of sympathy for Arthur among Klopp’s staff. No one has a bad word to say about him. He was simply a panic signing in an emergency rather than a strategic one. That emergency then passed before he was in a position to grasp his chance and do himself justice.

The timing of the thigh injury was cruel. Having missed so much football, he’s been playing catch-up once again in recent months and Klopp has understandably placed his trust elsewhere as he battles to salvage the season through European qualification.

Arthur still has two years to run on his contract at Juventus but there is no future for him in Turin and he will be on the move again this summer. He came to Liverpool to get his career back on track but the brutal reality is that it has regressed.

The irony is that when he agreed to join, he told Liverpool that he wanted the vacant No 29 shirt, the one he wore at his first professional club, Gremio, because it was “lucky”. After the agony of the last eight months, he may want to choose a different number next time.

(Top photo: John Powell/Liverpool FC via Getty Images; design by Samuel Richardson)