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Update: Lewis Holtby's loan move now official.
Yesterday, conflicting reports appeared in the Liverpool Echo and Goal.de on Lewis Holtby's reported move to Fulham. The Echo said it was a permanent transfer for a little under £5m, while Goal.de reported a loan with no option to buy. We didn't know how to parse the difference at the time.
Now we have what looks like a clear report from Sky Sports that Holby will move to Fulham on loan. The move is so locked in, they report, that Holtby has begun training with Fulham in advance of his contract moving to their books. There is not that much to the Sky report, but they're generally pretty solid on these sorts of things.
Lewis Holtby has trained with Fulham ahead of his anticipated deadline-day loan move from Tottenham.
They do not mention whether Goal.de was correct that Fulham have no option to buy, but given that the key part of the report is confirmed, it's reasonable to be hopeful.
Fulham's midfield was a gaping crater of terrible, as Ted Knutson at Statsbomb recently demonstrated with pretty charts, so this is a fantastic move for the Cottagers. Hopefully Holtby takes advantage of the opportunity and returns to Spurs Lodge over the summer ready to play the kind of consistent, Champions League quality football that his German career suggested he was capable of.
