Virgil van Dijk has publicly called on Liverpool to conclude a new contract with centre-back Ibrahima Konat\u00e9, and manager Arne Slot has echoed that wish as negotiations continue without resolution.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously I want him to stay,\u201d Van Dijk said. \u201cHe\u2019s an important figure on the pitch. That, everyone sees, but off the pitch as well. He\u2019s one of the leaders and he\u2019s an outstanding and, in my eyes, world-class centre back.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can only do so much, but it\u2019s in the club\u2019s hands, together with his agents and himself, so let\u2019s see what comes out of it. But I have no influence otherwise on that.<\/p>\n
Slot, who described Konat\u00e9 as a \u201cvital\u201d piece of the team, added: \u201cWe are in talks with him so that tells you what we want. It\u2019s clear we would like him to stay but negotiations are ongoing so let\u2019s see where that ends. We wouldn\u2019t be in negotiations if we didn\u2019t want him to stay.\u201d<\/p>\n
The desire to keep Konat\u00e9 is clear inside the club. Losing another valuable asset for free, 12 months after Trent Alexander-Arnold\u2019s departure, would be damaging for business. Talks between the parties have been under way for months, yet an extension remains out of sight. The delay is not believed to reflect any change in the player\u2019s role; Konat\u00e9 already occupies a key position in the team.<\/p>\n
Finances have been reported as a sticking point. Reliable reports in October claimed Konat\u00e9 was seeking a contract that would place him alongside Van Dijk and Mohamed Salah among the club\u2019s highest earners. While such a deal is within Liverpool\u2019s capacity to offer, club officials must weigh whether it is sensible for a squad with an already high wage bill. On-field struggles have also left Liverpool unable to count on the additional income tied to Champions League participation next season.<\/p>\n
In the background, suitors across Europe are thought to be making approaches. Moving on a free transfer typically allows the player to command higher wages and a sizeable signing-on fee. Clubs overseas are now permitted to hold formal talks with the 26-year-old, and his financial demands will be shaped by the offers he has received.<\/p>\n
For a while, it seemed like Konat\u00e9 was destined to join Real Madrid. Konat\u00e9 was seen as a key target for Los Blancos at the start of the season, but their interest is thought to have faded after the Frenchman\u2019s underwhelming form at the beginning of the campaign left them looking elsewhere.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Van Dijk and Arne Slot urge Liverpool to resolve Ibrahima Konat\u00e9 contract amid stalled talks. today.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6867,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[175,1163],"tags":[983,1393,1047],"class_list":["post-6868","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-liverpool","category-transfers","tag-agents","tag-centre-back","tag-champions-league"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6868","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=6868"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6868\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6867"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6868"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6868"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6868"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}