Andoni Iraola has set out a clear early agenda at Liverpool, making retention of Curtis Jones a stated priority as he prepares to reshape the squad. Iraola took the job after Arne Slot\u2019s departure and arrives following three strong seasons with Bournemouth, a period that delivered the club\u2019s maiden European berth and a finish three points behind Liverpool.<\/p>\n
Liverpool\u2019s summer has already seen the exit of Mohamed Salah, Andy Robertson and Ibrahima Konat\u00e9. The club\u2019s near \u00a3450 million splurge last summer failed to deliver the expected stability, a disappointment that preceded the managerial change and Chelsea\u2019s decision to appoint Xabi Alonso after an earlier approach.<\/p>\n
Curtis Jones, who is 25 and entering the final year of his contract, has attracted concrete interest from Inter Milan. Reports indicate Liverpool rejected a third offer from the Scudetto holders said to be worth \u20ac32 million (\u00a327.3 million, $36.6 million). The club is understood to be holding out for at least \u20ac40 million (\u00a334.2 million, $45.7 million). Iraola has been unequivocal about his preference to keep the midfielder.<\/p>\n
Speaking to assembled media for the first time since taking the job, Iraola said of Jones: \u201cI will have the chance to speak with him today [Monday]. I rate Curtis very highly. For me, he is a great, great player, and I hope he can continue with us and continue performing the way he has been performing.\u201d<\/p>\n
On Jones\u2019s character and ties to the club, Iraola added: \u201cFrom the outside, at least, he looks like a player with good character, and I hope we can keep him, not only for this year but for more time.\u201d<\/p>\n
Iraola has also been frank about the wider transfer task, noting the squad needs strengthening despite recent additions. \u201cObviously we\u2019ve signed two players already, but we need more players ; we know this,\u201d he told reporters. \u201cThe club is working on this.\u201d<\/p>\n
The two signings referenced are young centre back J\u00e9r\u00e9my Jacquet and Spanish international Victor Mu\u00f1oz, who joined this summer for a combined \u00a394.5 million. Iraola\u2019s opening weeks will be defined by how successfully he balances retention of homegrown talent with further recruitment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Iraola has said he wants to keep Curtis Jones as Inter is interested and Liverpool seek more players<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":17354,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[739,175,172],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17355","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bournemouth","category-liverpool","category-epl"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17355","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17355"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17355\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17354"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17355"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17355"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17355"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}