When we're talking about Liverpool and transfers, there's only one topic on everyone's lips at the moment - the midfield.
It’s the worst-kept secret the Reds need additions in the middle of the park if they are to get back to competing for the Premier League title and on multiple fronts. Let's not forget, it was only 12 months ago that talk of a quadruple was on the cards. How times have changed.
Cody Gakpo may have been brought into bolster Jurgen Klopp's injury-hit attack during this month's transfer window but supporters are desperate to see a midfielder signed before deadline day on January 31 as well. Whether that happens remains to be seen.
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But come the summer there is an increasing likelihood that there will be major changes at Anfield, with players coming and going. And one player who could be heading for the exit door is Naby Keita.
The Guinea international is out of contract at the end of the season - along with fellow midfielders James Milner and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain - and, as things stand, a new deal does not appear to be on the cards, and therefore he will be leaving on a free transfer come July.
If you go back to August, Klopp was asked about the prospect of selling Keita 12 months before his contract expired. “And not replace him? No, that’s not possible, of course not. But it’s not the plan,” said the Liverpool boss in August 2022.
“We are not dumb that we think a player can go and we don’t replace him. No, there’s no chance. So, Naby will not go but if he would – what he will not do – there must be a replacement, of course.”
If that view remains the same, then it stands to reason that the Reds will look to replace Keita in the summer if he leaves at the end of his deal. But who could that possibly be?
Jude Bellingham, Moises Caicedo, Enzo Fernandez, Sofyan Amrabat and Alexis Mac Allister are just some of the midfielders who have been linked with a move to Liverpool. But bar from Arthur Melo, who joined on loan from Juventus on the final day of the summer transfer window, the Reds have not signed a midfielder since Thiago Alcantara in September 2020.
“I understand the question but I don’t understand it as well,” said Klopp, in August, when pressed if the club would sign a midfielder before the transfer window closed. “Because if there was the right solution we would have done it already, we are not stubborn, it’s just about the right thing to do.
“When people told me at the beginning of the season that we lack a specific kind of midfielder, I didn’t understand that, because if you search for specific things then you always lack something.
“If there would be the right player and there would be an opportunity we would do it, but I don’t see it because we had a lot of conversations already and it doesn’t look like something will happen.”
Klopp was keen to stress the importance of signing the “right” player for the Reds. At the time of his arrival, Keita was certainly that.
Klopp had Milner, Jordan Henderson, Gini Wijnaldum and the newly-signed Fabinho at his disposal, as well as Oxlade-Chamberlain and Adam Lallana, but Keita was brought into bring something different to Liverpool. With his high pressing, energy and ability on the ball, it was hoped that the former RB Leipzig man would go on to become one of the world's best midfielders at Anfield.
You only have to look at what Klopp said when the deal was first announced back in the summer of 2017 to see how highly the Reds manager through of Keita, who would have to wait a year before he officially made the move to Merseyside from Germany.
“I have contact with a lot of people in the Bundesliga, how you can imagine, and I have never got so many ‘congratulations’ messages like after we said in public that we signed Naby,” said Klopp. “He is the player of the league. Last year, together with Thiago Alcantara, who played an outstanding season for Bayern, he was the flier.
“He has been doing that already for two or three years in different leagues. He is still a very young boy. So that’s really good news.
“Okay, we have to wait but sometimes you have to wait for a really good thing. I have no problem with this; how you can imagine, I would have preferred another situation but that’s not a problem. It’s cool.”
Klopp knew he needed Keita in his squad so much that he was willing to make sure he did not join another club. Agreeing a deal for a transfer 12 months in advance showed true dedication to identifying a target and sticking to it.
Fast-forward five-and-a-half years and, in a way, it feels very similar. Klopp still has faith in Keita but if he is to leave, he will not do so without a replacement being found.
The question is, though, who could that be? Only the Reds' scouting department and Klopp will know the true ins and outs of what the club is planning to do in the market over the coming months.
Do Liverpool want a like-for-like replacement for Keita? A box-to-box midfielder with the ability to press from the front and win the ball back? Or do they want to go down a different path? All of these questions, you would imagine, will be going on in the background at Anfield.
There must certainly be a plan for the summer. But will there be a plan for January? If there isn’t then that’s a big risk to take.
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