Ronald Ara\u00fajo has made it clear that the question of whether he stays at Liverpool beyond his loan spell remains open. The defender, who joined from Barcelona on an initial season-long loan, said it is still too \u201cearly\u201d to know what happens next summer.<\/p>\n
Ara\u00fajo\u2019s move came after a difficult period in which he took a mental health break midway through last season and featured only a handful of times across all competitions after his return. At Liverpool, he says he has quickly felt settled.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m trying to enjoy each day, to grow and improve,\u201d Ara\u00fajo told reporters at a press conference this week, before Liverpool face Villarreal in the Champions League.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m very happy here and so is my family, but it\u2019s still early. I\u2019m very happy because, since I arrived, I\u2019ve felt welcomed not only by the club, but also by the fans. I want to repay them in every training session and every match.\u201d<\/p>\n
Liverpool\u2019s agreement includes an option to buy set at a fixed fee of \u20ac55 million ($61.7 million, \u00a346.2 million), but the club is under no pressure to decide immediately. Fabrizio Romano\u2019s latest update, via his self-titled YouTube channel, says a call is not expected before February 2027 at the earliest. He added that Liverpool will \u201ctake their time\u201d, with no need to settle the issue before June if they prefer to wait.<\/p>\n
Finances may play a part in the final decision, along with wider squad planning. Romano also says salary is a major factor, describing the pay from Ara\u00fajo\u2019s Barcelona contract as \u201cmassive.\u201d Liverpool are said to be covering his full wages during the loan, with Capology estimating a weekly base of \u00a3210,000, rising to \u00a3273,000 with bonuses.<\/p>\n
Ara\u00fajo has made 10 appearances in all competitions, with more than half of them coming at right back because of Jeremie Frimpong\u2019s availability. He has started six times there and twice at centre back, including in the Carabao Cup and in the Champions League win over LASK.<\/p>\n
Although centre back is his preferred position, Ara\u00fajo said the role is not an issue. \u201cIt is not a problem for me,\u201d he said. \u201cWhen I signed for this team, I knew it was one of the possibilities, so it was not anything new to me. I give everything wherever I play.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Ara\u00fajo says Liverpool future remains open, with salary and squad planning key to any permanent move.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21859,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[175],"tags":[1047,59,182],"class_list":["post-21860","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-liverpool","tag-champions-league","tag-featured","tag-transfers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21860","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=21860"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21860\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21859"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21860"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21860"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21860"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}