Liverpool have welcomed a range of new signings to Arne Slot’s title-winning squad, spanning Giorgi Mamardashvili between the sticks to Hugo Ekitike as Anfield’s new talismanic frontman (for now).
A bid for Newcastle United’s Alexander Isak remains in the pipeline, though the prospect of the all-powerful striker completing Liverpool’s attacking set remains reliant on the Magpies finding and signing adequate replacements. Don’t hold your breath.
A deal has been agreed for Parma teenager Giovanni Leoni, and Crystal Palace’s Marc Guehi remains a top target.
However, several Liverpool stars may yet be on the move before the September 1st deadline.
Who Liverpool could still sell
Liverpool have recently sold forwards Luis Diaz and Darwin Nunez, but Federico Chiesa may yet leave too, with a return to his Italian homeland on the cards after a frustrating year on Merseyside.
Harvey Elliott is also planning to leave, for the young playmaker has been reduced to a peripheral role in Slot’s system, and will likely find his match action further impeded after the £116m signing of Florian Wirtz.
Such players would be allowed to leave with little complaint, but that isn’t the case as far as Ibrahima Konate is concerned.
Instrumental in winning the Premier League last year, Liverpool’s Konate has entered the final year of his £70k-per-week contract, and while long efforts to renew terms have been made, sporting director Richard Hughes has yet to make a breakthrough.
And now, according to transfer insider Simon Phillips, Chelsea are willing to join Real Madrid in bidding for the centre-back this summer, prepared to offer a significant sum to bring him over to Stamford Bridge. A figure in the region of £43m has been mooted elsewhere.
Were the Les Bleus powerhouse to choose the latter option and sign for Chelsea, might Liverpool be looking at a dreadful repeat of that one-time loss of Fernando Torres to the London side?
Liverpool must not sell Ibrahima Konate
The thought of Konate linking up with Trent Alexander-Arnold at Real Madrid is bad enough, but to consider him wearing blue under the Stamford Bridge lights is to swallow a bitter pill indeed.
More still, the 26-year-old would be directly strengthening a Premier League title rival at their time of need, Chelsea having lost Colwill for the lion’s share of the season.
Having spent four seasons with Liverpool, it’s no coincidence that the France international’s injury-riddled stay smoothed out last year, the first term he has lifted the Premier League with the Redmen.
Liverpool must fight tooth and nail to keep such a player in their mix, especially as Virgil van Dijk edges toward the twilight of his illustrious career.
Under new management, Liverpool enjoyed collective improvements on the fitness front last season, with Slot and his team’s renown for maintaining high availability levels paying dividends. Longer sessions with reduced intensity did the trick, along with calculated substitutions across the campaign.
Konate indeed benefitted, enjoying more Premier League football than ever before across the span of a league season.
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Were the Reds to lose their “monster” of a defender, as he has been called by analyst Josh Williams, while reaching the peak of his powers, it could be reminiscent of that deal that allowed Torres to head to Chelsea for a record-breaking £50m fee.
The Spanish legend had torn English football to shreds after leaving his homeland and joining Rafa Benitez’s Liverpool side in 2006, scoring 81 goals and supplying 19 assists across just 142 matches in all competitions.
He never found the same degree of invincibility with Chelsea, although he did win a host of honours with club and country, including the World Cup and the Champions League, but El Nino, to be sure, harks back to his time on Merseyside as the finest football he has produced on an individual level.
Torres’ decision to leave Liverpool for Chelsea stung, but the candid truth is the Blues were higher up the food chain at that point in time. The bigger beast.
Stamford Bridge can no longer claim that narrative, and for Konate to depart and rehouse himself in west London would be a gut-punch of a move for those of a Liverpool persuasion.
With Hughes at the head of the table, let’s hope that that unthinkable eventuality does not become a reality.