Perhaps the least pleasant part of trying to pay attention to Liverpool Football Club last season was the endless will-he-or-won’t-he saga surrounding Trent Alexander-Arnold’s potential move to Real Madrid at the end of the season on a free transfer.
Now, it seems we’re going to get to do that all over again with Ibrahima Konaté, who unless he signs a new deal with the Reds in the next month or two seems fated to be the focus of endless non-updates, ones likely to grow increasingly insistent during any international break.
So we find ourselves in the doldrums of week two of the September international break and hey, look at that, we’ve Real Madrid press mouthpiece Marca churning out the inevitable non-update that Real Madrid are super confident they’ll sign Konaté.
From a Liverpool point of view it would of course be nice if Konaté signed a new deal, but having reportedly offered him three new contracts over the past year this does rather feel a case of waiting on the inevitable—even more so than last season with Alexander-Arnold.
Alexander-Arnold, though, was a club trained player. A local lad who said Liverpool meant more and that he dreamed of captaining the Reds before deciding to join Madrid on a free (that ended up costing them £10M to get him for the Club World Cup).
Konaté, on the other hand, joined from Leipzig in 2021 when Liverpool triggered his £36M release clause, and it would be hard to say the Reds haven’t more than got their money worth as they head into season five with him lining up alongside superstar Virgil van Dijk.
If he does, as it has to be assumed at this point (see: rejecting three contract offers), wants a new challenge and change of scenery instead of having a go at establishing himself as Liverpool’s true heir to Van Dijk, it will likely be less bothersome for most.
Liverpool would obviously love to tie Konaté down to a new deal. But it also won’t be the end of the world if they don’t manage it and they’ll have more than got value out of his signing in 2021. We only really hope this saga doesn’t drag on quite as annoyingly as Trent’s.