If Ibou wants to go to Madrid for free, there isn’t much we can do about it. We can’t force him to sign a new contract. We also can’t sell him because he won’t agree the move. Madrid aren’t going to buy him now if they know they can have him for free later. The best we can do is try to convince him to sign long term, and if not enjoy him for one more season while we work on a replacement. Players leaving on a free is going to become more and more common place. It would be nice to see someone besides Madrid take advantage of it.
As much as I dislike this idea of RM tapping up players to run their contracts down and then move on a free, it’s not as though we haven’t done this as well. James Milner came to us from Man City on a free (and that turned out pretty well). For the moment I’m willing to see what ends up happening with Konate… there is still a lot of time before his contract is up. There are probably a lot more rumors than truth regarding negotiations re: his contract right now…
I'm guessing we didn't tap up Milner though. I think a lot of the Milner thing was that he wasn't interested in 115s long term project and that he was starting to see less time. 115 did want to keep him however.
Milner is the only free agent of note that comes to mind who we've signed and even at the time I saw his signing as more opportunistic rather than the result of some long term nefarious planning or tapping up. Meanwhile besides Trent, Rüdiger, Alaba, and Kylian Mbappé come to mind for Real which seems to have a strategy around signing high profile free agents. Ibou may be the next.
100% correct. people saying we should drop him if he refuses to sign - gimme a break. how does that work? contract renewals like this drag out because the player/agent drag them out. they don't necessarily say "I won't sign for you again" - they just keep shifting their demands. this is the nature of negotiations. it may well be that the player/agent is going overboard on their demands, not necessarily that they're bargaining in bad faith. fact is, the club doesn't actually know for sure either way do they? the club may well decide at some point that they're being played and decide to give up on the guy. OK fine, but dropping a top/key player to punish them is risking your season's success, and possibly creating a problem among the squad overall. my guess is a club that did that would get a rep for being bastards that could see other targets steer clear. speke hit the mail on the head above. the player holds the cards, period. we as fans hate it but there are no simple solutions no matter how attractive they may appear.
Well, it works by doing it sooner. Not waiting the final year of their contract to do this. The players do have a lot of power. But they also need to be playing regularly to get picked for their national teams and to carry on getting the endorsements they are getting and to maximize their next contract. This is absolutely what we should have done with Trent last year when it became obvious he was going to leave. Konate's a different dilemma. This is the first season he's truly been a first choice player rather than a very good rotation. Due to fitness and Matip and Gomez playing fantastically when fit the club has not really been truly able to assess what Konate is worth. The timing of his peak year with Liverpool is fantastic for him and his agent, and truly unlucky for Liverpool. We probably could have got him on much less last summer with a new extension. Konate's minutes in the Prem 21/22: 990 minutes 22/23: 1551 minutes 23/24: 1571 minutes 24/25: 2415 minutes with two games remaining Before this season, he played 4112 prem minutes in three seasons. Matip had done 4666 in those same three seasons and yet he was asking for less and we still refused it last summer. Gomez is also looking for a lot less, and we seem unwilling, and he did 3571 minutes in those three seasons. Switch his fitness and minutes with any other season and it would be much easier to sign him up to a new contract. And if he has another questionable fitness season next year then offers for him will be less lucrative. From the board's position, he's a risk to offer a lengthy contract on a huge wage. This is his fourth season with us and while this is the season he's getting lucrative offers to run down his contract with us we are looking at his career with regard to how much we can offer him. Real can lowball him or even look elsewhere if he has another season of poor fitness. Trent should not get the hate he's getting, as it's a business. The club has no loyalty to their own legends once they hit a certain age. Gerrard was shown the door despite a year earlier being told he'd get an extension if he retired from England and this season Salah and VVD have started 36 out of 36 league games and been arguably the best forward and CB in the league and we still dragged our heels on their contracts.
Oh, and as much as I despise Real for taking our players on frees, we are not really any better. Just look at Liverpool and Fulham. We have exploited contracts to get Harvey and Carvalho who showed little loyalty to the club who trained them. We have already made a big profit on one of them and are likely to see a big profit on Harvey regardless if he stays or goes. We are not that much better than Real.
jeez - so a player has not agreed a renewal after multiple iterations of negotiations. he has 2 years left. you think we should drop them from the squad - diluting our options and chances of success - and pay him to train for 2 years?
Yeah , I 've seen a variety of responses to Trent's leaving , ie the running down of his deal but in general Scouses are not as forgiving as fans from other parts of the globe. Personally I have a strong distaste for any Lpool player running down his contract and hurting the club financially. Scouse UFC lightweight and die-hard Liverpool fan Paddy Pimblett has expressed his frustration at Trent Alexander-Arnold's exit from the club and sums up what many Scousers are feeling imo. "I've never ever in my life seen one of our players get booed. That's how you know it's real. "It's standard. If you're going to string your club along ... You're meant to be a scouser lad." "Van Dijk and Salah are now more scousers than he is, simple as that," Pimblett said. "They were talking all year about wanting to stay, wanting to sign a new contract. "He just didn't do an interview about it because he knew he was leaving." "Even that pitiful video he put out ... Reading a teleprompter. Nothing that he said was from his heart. He didn't even get emotional, if I was leaving Liverpool Football Club I'd be crying my eyes out. He's forgotten where he's come from." "He strung us along. No one should be able to tell us how we feel," he said. "All the pundits and that, don't try and tell me how I should feel. If I feel like booing him, I'll boo him. It's as simple as that. He shouldn't be at the trophy parade because it will just bring the mood down." Paddy Pimblett on Trent Alexander-Arnold's Liverpool exit: 'He strung us along' - ESPN
I disagree. Those are youth players, and that occurs regularly at the youth level. It's a lot more rare at the established star level.
Very few players approaching the peak of their career are going to simply sit in the stands for two seasons. Older players coming to the end of their careers might. Players who are not being chased by the world's elite will. Trent and Konate who have bigger ambitions will not. The very reason Trent is leaving Liverpool is the very reason he'd either sign or submit a transfer request if he knew he was going to be benched for two years. He's after a Beckham like legacy in the game. He wants to be a legend. You don't become a legend sitting on your arse for two years in your best years
I see us being linked with Rayan Cherki from Lyon. Anyone know anything about him? I've heard the name but not sure I've ever seen him play.
He's mad. Can dribble and pass like no other. Maybe not the swiftest however. Would take him especially at the 25m mooted price.
It depends. If as blogs have intimated that Trent was leading LFC on for the last 1.5 years and that he was always going to go the RM, then he deserves all the boos he gets. I would boo the club if they took advantage of a player. It seems like that's what's happening with Ibou. He's been offered contracts but is just ignoring them and not trying to deal in good faith because he is heading in a different direction. If that's the case, then be honest with club.
if this is accurate, how come the echo chamber has been so silent? apart from Ornstein .... total crickets ..... ?
Isak injured again, didn't play today. hope we steer clear. he's starting to look like Sturridge 2.0.
Matip was the other one who saw major playing time. Most of the other free transfers were last minute additions for cover (several of our 3rd choice goalkeepers were free transfers). But I agree that our use of them appears very different to how RM are appearing to use them…
🚨 Understand Liverpool have contacted Bournemouth for Milos Kerkez deal with talks now advancing!Liverpool are also completing the agreement on personal terms with Kerkez, keen on the move.Negotiations underway between clubs on transfer fee. pic.twitter.com/RXonkKteo5— Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) May 19, 2025
Kerkez and Frimpong is as Special as it gets for attacking fullbacks . Silky smooth by Hughes and FSG
I remember watching Slot’s first couple preseason games, and it was Tsmikas and Bradley at fullback. The fullbacks were taking up some crazy positions, and making runs that you would expect the centerforward to make. We didn’t see much of it during the season because that type of thing did not suit the fullbacks who we had. With Frimpong and Kerketz it seems like Slot wants to go back to his original idea and now he has fullbacks that would love to make those types of runs.
It’s a bit of a mug’s game, for me anyway, trying to divine who the club’s going to sign. There’s loads of data and other info which we’re not able to see. Personality, asshole quotient and so on. The most we can do as fans, I suppose is say, “I like the look of him in that position for that club, I think he’d do well for us playing like this”. The one player I felt we should sign this summer was Kerkez, based on his performances at Bournemouth. Thought he’d fit in well. But to sign Kerkez and Frimpong, if the interwebs are to be believed, would be a huge success. Both are players that could and would improve the team up and down the pitch. Had TAA stayed, signing both would probably have meant an exit for Bradley; signing both now probably means an exit for Tsimikas. A shame, he seems like a decent guy and is definitely liked by the squad, but there’s no way Tsimikas wins any battle with Kerkez. Bradley and Frimpong will be interesting; my guess here is that Bradley is seen as the better defender, Frimpong the better attacker, so each will be used according to circumstance. But Kerkez and Frimpong alone makes this window nearly a success for me. (I know there will be other moves).