Not just Jacquet: Future Konate replacement has already agreed to join Liverpool

There’s an acceptance in hindsight that Liverpool’s profitable begin to the 2025/26 marketing campaign glazed over issues which have since festered and laid waste to Arne Slot’s second season.

Too many issues have gone incorrect on Merseyside, and whilst you might title any variety of issues which have contributed towards this difficult marketing campaign, the Reds’s lack of steadiness and depth in central defence has arguably been the crux of the startling fall-off.

The Premier League title is out of attain, however Liverpool nonetheless scramble to reprise their function within the Champions League theatre.

The ramifications of lacking out on Europe’s elite competitors could be extreme, and all of the uncertainty has maybe performed into Ibrahima Konate’s considering as he inches towards the tip of his time on Merseyside.

Ibrahima Konate’s Liverpool future

Konate’s defensive catastrophe at RAMS Park on Tuesday night has fanned flames that had flickered out over the previous a number of months, with the French centre-back recovering a few of his finer kind to assist information Liverpool away from their nadir.

However Konate nonetheless has a mistake in him, and he was caught out on quite a few events as Liverpool had been defeated by Galatasaray within the first leg of their last-16 tie within the Champions League.

He is out of contract in the summertime and more likely to depart, however FSG have technically changed him, including Jeremy Jacquet to the ranks for a £60m payment. The Rennes defender will full his transfer in July.

Furthermore, Giovanni Leoni, who joined Liverpool from Parma for £27m final summer season solely to get injured on his debut, is predicted to return this calendar yr, and can play a giant half in 2026/27.

With Jacquet and Leoni sure to play vital roles for the membership subsequent yr, Konate’s departure does not really feel so worrying, particularly when contemplating the extra work that Richard Hughes and co have accomplished in setting Liverpool’s backline up for a few years to return.

Liverpool have signed teen with “Van Dijk vibes”

Liverpool have not been sturdy sufficient in defence over the previous a number of years, and that is a results of uncared for switch funding in recent times.

In all probability, Liverpool are going to concede 40+ targets for the fifth time in six seasons, illustrating enduring porousness in defence that wants fixing.

Jacquet and co are considered as options, however Ifeanyi Ndukwe might emerge as one of many centrepieces of the brand new age too. Liverpool agreed a £2m transfer to signal him from Austria Vienna again in January, though he is not going to formally head to Anfield till this summer season.

The 18-year-old is a part of a concerted defensive rebuild, Liverpool stocking themselves for the longer term. He’ll be a part of the membership this summer season, and whereas he will not turn into a mainstay from the get-go, there is a weight of expectation round his title, a hope that he is not going to solely exchange Konate however tackle Virgil van Dijk’s function nicely down the road.

{The teenager} has but to make his first-team debut in Austria, however he is an achieved youth star who wants solely a closing push in regard to his youth improvement to develop into his pores and skin as a senior star.

In 2025, the assured teen mentioned, “In 5 years I will be enjoying professionally within the Premier League.” It seems like that may come sooner, with analyst Raj Chohan even suggesting he is an “elite expertise” with “Van Dijk vibes”.

Liverpool’s omnipotent captain has nonetheless been a defensive point of interest this season, however he turns 35 in July so it is comprehensible that the Anfield aspect are planning for the longer term.

Konate has been a stalwart for Liverpool, instrumental by way of a title-winning spell within the membership’s lengthy and wealthy historical past. Nonetheless, he is clearly excited by leaving on a free switch this summer season, and with Hughes and co having positioned such an emphasis on

Ndukwe won’t be a family title in Merseyside proper now, however he is obtained the potential to turn into a famous person, and with the likes of Jacquet and Leoni positive to play vital roles subsequent yr, it would really be value chopping ties with Konate as an alternative of creating him one of many highest earners at Anfield.