One journalist has claimed that Curtis Jones was ‘100% gone’ from Liverpool at the start of the summer, but could now be persuaded to remain with his boyhood club.
The midfielder is into the final year of his contract at Anfield and has been the subject of much speculation over a potential exit, with the Reds rejecting two offers from Inter Milan for the 25-year-old.
In his introductory press conference on Monday, Andoni Iraola was effusive with his praise of our number 17 and left reporters and LFC fans worldwide under no illusions about his desire to keep hold of the Toxteth native ‘not only for this year but for more time’.
David Lynch joined Dan Clubbe for The Redmen TV‘s Transfer Insight feature, and he suggested that Jones’ chances of staying at Liverpool have been improved by the Basque replacing Arne Slot as head coach.
The journalist said: “I think there’s a key few weeks coming up here in terms of what he decides. If you’d have asked me at the start of the window, I’d have said Curtis Jones is 100% gone. The change of manager maybe switched things for him.
“The fact that [Iraola] has said that publicly, it seems like he’s gonna at least have a try at selling a role to him. I wouldn’t take it off the table, Curtis leaving. It’s a really important period now. With Alexis [Mac Allister] as well, after the World Cup we’ll see what happens.
“There’s real potential for both of them to go but also potential for the manager to say, ‘I desperately need to keep you both’. It’s a really interesting storyline in pre-season, and if anybody gets out an interview with Curtis during pre-season, I’d be really interested to hear what he has to say.”
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In his press conference on Monday, Iraola made no secret of his concerns over squad depth at Liverpool, so he’ll likely be reluctant to let players leave without a few reinforcements being brought in first.
That he was so glowing in his praise of Jones and transparent about his wish to keep him would suggest that those words match his sentiments and that he’ll do everything in his power to convince the 25-year-old to remain with his boyhood club.
Having started just under half of our Premier League games over the past two seasons, it’d be understandable if the midfielder craved a move to somewhere that he’d be a fixed presence in the line-up, particularly now that he’s coming into what should be his prime footballing years.
Hopefully Iraola can privately convince the Scouser that his future would be best served by remaining at Anfield and become a crucial leadership presence, a quality which could do with replenishing in the squad after the exits of Mo Salah and Andy Robertson.
Whether Joness stays or leaves still appears to be in the balance, but here’s hoping the powerbrokers at Liverpool will persuade him to commit to the club for the long-term.
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