Liverpool transfer news: Why Reds agreed to Rennes' condition in Jeremy Jacquet deal

Jeremy Jacquet will play for Liverpool from next season. Stade Rennais wanted to keep their French defender, and the Reds have consented.

Officially announced on February 2, the transfer of the 18-year-old centre-back took a long time to materialise. On one hand, the defender was tracked by numerous European clubs, but ultimately Jeremy Jacquet chose Liverpool over Chelsea.

On the other hand, Rennes absolutely did not want to part with their player this winter, forcing an agreement that only becomes effective in June 2026. This could have involved a six-month loan back from the buying club.

But ultimately, the Frenchman, "honoured to sign" for the 6th-placed Premier League side, will indeed join the English club, who have agreed to accept the deal conditions imposed by Stade Rennais.

Liverpool constrained by financial fair play

In today's edition, L'Equipe reveal that Liverpool's choice is mainly linked to "economic constraints," and not necessarily a desire to please Rennes.

Indeed, faced with financial fair play rules, Arne Slot's side had to find "solutions" to complete the deal while beating the competition. The chosen option here was to defer the £60m fee to next season's accounts.

Furthermore, if Liverpool had signed Jeremy Jacquet during this January window only to send him on loan to Rennes for the rest of the season, the Breton club would have certainly demanded a portion of the transfer fee during the winter window.

However, the Reds' aim was to not spend a single penny in January. This deferred transfer solution was also used for Ifeanyi Ndukwe, a 17-year-old centre-back who will leave his club, Austria Vienna, next summer after turning 18 in March.

Rennes: winners from the Jacquet transfer to Liverpool?

From Rennes' perspective, such a solution – a deferred transfer rather than an immediate transfer followed by a loan – gave the Breton club the opportunity to use Jeremy Jacquet against Marseille in the Coupe de France on Tuesday evening.

Had the centre-back been transferred on February 2 and then loaned back to Rennes, the registration period, which takes between 2 and 3 days, would have caused him to miss the match – which was ultimately lost 3-0.

The deal is therefore a win-win, with Rennes letting their gem go for a hefty fee while keeping him until the end of the current season, and Liverpool avoiding problems with financial fair play by pushing the operation back to summer 2026.

It remains to be seen whether, as Christophe Dugarry suggested on RMC, Rennes have indeed found "a sucker" in Liverpool for paying such a sum (£61m/€72m) for such a young player.