Ibrahima Konate is reportedly a ‘priority target’ for one club in Saudi Arabia as he prepares to leave Liverpool after five years on Merseyside.
On Friday, it emerged that the 27-year-old will depart the Reds at the end of his current contract, which expires in a month’s time, having been unable to reach a final agreement on terms with the Anfield hierarchy.
Despite the Frenchman’s optimistic noises a few weeks ago, there ultimately proved to be too big a disparity between what he wanted and what the club were prepared to offer him, with the defender having sought a pay rise to bring him in line with LFC’s highest-earning players (The Athletic).
According to Foot Mercato, Konate has now become a ‘priority target’ for Saudi Pro League outfit Al-Ittihad as they seek to take advantage of his status as a free agent following his exit from Liverpool.
The report claims that the centre-back is ‘unlikely to be short of offers’ coming into the summer, with Real Madrid, Bayern Munich and Paris Saint-Germain also named as prospective suitors.
However, while he is highly coveted by the Jeddah-based club, they are currently going through a period of ‘significant instability behind the scenes’, with head coach Sergio Conceicao expected to leave and a new sporting director projected to come in alongside ‘several changes’ at boardroom level.
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Konate is leaving one club in a state of flux (with Liverpool now seeking a new head coach to replace Arne Slot) and potentially joining another in Al-Ittihad, if they can overcome the off-field uncertainty to bring the defender to Saudi Arabia.
They have previous when it comes to signing players from Anfield, having purchased Fabinho three years ago, and theoretically a move for the French defender should be easier now that he’ll be out of contract.
Despite the 27-year-old enduring an error-strewn season, he’ll still be a significant loss to the Reds, whose defensive options were severely depleted at times throughout the campaign, and seeing him depart without recouping a transfer fee compounds the blow.
Whoever ultimately signs Konate will be getting a player in the prime of his career and who boasts plenty of elite-level experience for club and country, having won the Premier League and played in a World Cup final.
While we wish the Frenchman all the best in his future endeavours, we just hope that Liverpool don’t come to have serious regrets over not being able to agree a contract extension for him this year.
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There’s never a perfect time to lose a starting centre back, but as your article highlights, Ibou was error prone and becoming increasingly so. There’s a good reason why he’s not already been snapped up. We have an odd situation at centre back, one where I’d not be looking to make big investments (yet). We have Leoni and Jacquet, both very young and inexperienced in the league and Joe Gomez who has is getting more and more injury prone. Rotating these three is one option, but would mean we are vulnerable for the first half of next season, splashing out on a big signing would potentially block the route of these two and the younger centre backs bought into the club during last season. The ideal scenario might be a one year loan deal for an experienced top quality centre back, someone looking for an opportunity to showcase themselves, perhaps someone of the level of Toni Rudiger, as long as he’s still got it. Not an easy problem to start with for the new boss.
Konate under klopp was one of best centre backs in Europe and we had a great pairing with van dijk. His head was turned by big money at Real Madrid and his form suffered his demise as quickly as slots.
Whatever you think of konate the way it’s all been handled with prolonged negotiations that got nowhere isn’t great from FSG Edwards and Hughes. He should have been sold, or dropped, and replaced.
Iraola will soon find out that the biggest problem he’ll inherit from slot is the defence. You can’t rely on Gomez, he should have been sold years ago, he’s injury prone.
We have two young central defenders who’ve Never played in the premier league, they are both recovering from bad injuries. That’s not good enough if you want to win big prizes.
We need two experienced centre backs who are physically strong, good in the , air who can handle the premier league, especially from set pieces. Anything less than that , it will be another season of failure.
We won’t get anywhere unless we can defend properly.
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