Liverpool warned off re-signing ‘awful’ player who ‘freezes’ despite deal nearly being done | OneFootball

Liverpool might be wise to re-consider handing a new and improved contract to Ibrahima Konate if the comments of two prominent sources in the media are anything to go by.

The long-running saga of whether Konate will or won’t sign a new contract at Anfield is mercifully coming to a close. Talks over a new deal began all the way back in the autumn of 2024. After interest from Real Madrid came and went, the signs began to point towards the Frenchman extending his stay on Merseyside.

Numerous sources including Fabrizio Romano have confirmed Konate’s new deal is at the final stages of being agreed.

There are still a handful of details to iron out, which Romano has hinted relate to bonuses, though as we exclusively revealed on April 6, the bigger elements of the deal – salary, contract length – are already settled.

Yet according to the Daily Mail’s Lewis Steele and also Reds icon Jamie Carragher, Liverpool might be doing themselves a favour by ripping up their impending agreement and letting Konate walk.

The 26-year-old has endured a nightmare campaign and in the Merseyside derby on Sunday, he was the Liverpool player most at fault for Beto’s equaliser.

Despite having a comfortable head-start over Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall, Konate ambled to intercept a through ball down the left channel and allowed the Everton playmaker to latch on first.

Konate then produced a tepid challenge and allowed Dewsbury-Hall to square for Beto to prod home from close range.

In the act of scoring, Beto inadvertently injured Giorgi Mamardashvili who was stretched off and taken to hospital. The latest on Mamardashvili’s injury situation can be found here.

Taking to X when live-tweeting the match, Steele – who is the Mail’s Merseyside correspondent – wrote: “1-1 Beto. So, so poor from Ibrahima Konate in the build-up I thought, just seemed to freeze.”

Konate’s downturn this year is a surprising one given he’d by and large been a consistently excellent performer in each of his four previous seasons at Liverpool.

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The hope from a Liverpool perspective is the player’s future and contract situation has weighed heavily on the centre-back this term, and assuming he does re-sign, he’ll get back to his best next year when able to fully focus on his football.

Nevertheless, one pundit who might not subscribe to that line of thinking is Carragher. When speaking about Virgil van Dijk and Konate in the aftermath of Liverpool’s first of two 2-0 defeats to PSG earlier this month, Carragher took aim at Konate.

“People have criticised Van Dijk for his performances this season but I think it’s been harsh,” said Carragher.

“I think he plays every game, the fella next to him has been awful all season and poor again tonight, Konate, makes a mistake every game, so that’s not easy to play alongside, so I still think he’s been one of Liverpool’s better players, Virgil van Dijk.”