Iraola lines up second signing at Liverpool after chance of Konate U-turn is revealed | OneFootball

Liverpool could reportedly look to sign Nico Schlotterbeck after Ibrahima Konate revealed the likelihood of a U-turn over his contract at Anfield.

Widespread reports earlier in the week suggested that the France international is set to leave Liverpool when his contract expires at the end of June.

Explaining Konate’s situation over the weekend, Fabrizio Romano said on his YouTube channel: “At the moment, Konaté has still not decided on what’s going to be his future but there is one guarantee today – for Ibrahima Konaté and Liverpool, the story is over. The deal is off. Konaté is going to leave Liverpool on a free transfer this summer.

“That’s a big story because, back in April, the agreement between Konaté and Liverpool was very close. Only two things were missing. The length of the contract was okay, and the salary was okay. The issues were linked to the bonuses in his contract.

“When you negotiate important contracts with important players, you can include a bonus if you win the Premier League, a bonus if you win the Champions League, and all this sort of stuff. Then, it was also about how to activate some of the normal bonuses.

“The extra bonuses were about winning trophies, and the other regular bonuses were about the number of appearances or those sorts of things—what they call ‘easy’ or ‘difficult’ bonuses.

“The agreement on these two points was never reached. Ibrahima was very confident; he even went to the press in April and said, ‘We are close to signing a new contract.’ When a player goes public like this, you know the agreement is almost done. And that was the case because, again, the salary structure and the length of the contract were ready, but then suddenly the deal went off.

“There was no agreement on these final details. They took weeks and weeks negotiating, and now the deal has collapsed. So, Ibrahima Konaté leaves Liverpool after five years at the club.”

While trusted French reporter, Fabrice Hawkins, revealed on Saturday that Konate has told his Liverpool team-mates that there will be no U-turn over his future.

Hawkins wrote on X: ‘Arne Slot and Ibrahima Konate leave Liverpoo. The French international announced it to his teammates; there will be no change of heart.’

Andoni Iraola is likely to take over from Slot in the summer and the Spaniard is set to make his first signing RB Leipzig winger Yan Diomande if they can get a deal over the line.

Schlotterbeck could replace Konate at Liverpool

And now DaveOCKOP insists that Borussia Dortmund centre-back Schlotterbeck could be his second with the Germany international ‘an option to replace the outgoing’ Konate.

On Schlotterbeck, the report adds: ‘We reported towards the end of 2025 that the Reds had serious interest in Nico Schlotterbeck. The club were in dialogue with his representatives and that dialogue had been positive.

‘His representatives have previously visited the AXA Training Centre during this past season.’

It is believed Schlotterbeck’s new contract contains a release clause of ‘between 50 and 60million euros’ and Liverpool are ‘thought to be one of the select few clubs around Europe that have access to this release clause, with the likes of Bayern Munich and Real Madrid also enjoying this distinction’.

Liverpool legend Jamie Carragher admits it was a “shock” to see the Reds make the call to sack Slot after months of reports claiming his job was safe.

Carragher told Sky Sports: “I was torn on Arne Slot. I would have almost backed any decision and I could see both sides of the argument, but it is a shock.

“I think an elite football manager, the absolute creme de la creme, probably finds a way of fixing Liverpool last season at some stage and making it better, but he wasn’t helped with recruitment.

“You look at those players, have any of them done well? There’s only (Hugo) Ekitike who’s played well, none of the others have done well. You could put that on the manager, does he need to get more out of them?

“Should those players have done more? A lot more, yes. Should the people above them have given them a better squad going into this season? Yes.

“There’s a lot of people to point the fingers at where Liverpool were last season, and also the players who were there the year before, a complete contrast in their performances.”