Fabrizio Romano: Only 'small things' left on CRUCIAL Liverpool centre-back contract

With the all-important contracts of Virgil van Dijk, Trent Alexander-Arnold and Mo Salah looming, you’d be forgiven for thinking Liverpool wouldn’t be focusing too much on the rest of their squad.

But this simply has not been the case. Last week’s announcement of a contract extension for Jarell Quansah had been rumoured for a few weeks alongside rumours of extensions for Luis Diaz and Ibrahima Konate.

Fabrizio Romano provided an update on the latter on his YouTube channel on Wednesday evening. The transfer guru announced that it is expected that Konate will be the next one to reach agreement on a new contract.

“The salary is almost agreed, it’s about some details of the contract, some small things to clarify with the player and with his agent,” Romano explained.

“Konate is very happy at Liverpool,” Romano continued, “he can feel how important he is for Liverpool and for the new manager Arne Slot. Fully expected to sign the deal at Liverpool.”

What these ‘small things’ are were not explained but seem insignificant compared to the big-picture story of Konate’s deal imminently being extended.

The French international’s current deal runs through to the end of the 2026 season, and so an extension would almost certainly see him stay at the club through his typical prime years to 29 or 30 years old.

As Romano alluded to, Konate has become an essential part of Liverpool’s performances this year. The centre-back sits second for aerial duels won by a defender in the league - to Virgil van Dijk, of all people - but with a much higher win-rate (86.2% to Van Dijk’s 73.2%).

Sporting director 'unhappy'

Yet the willingness from the club to extend the deals of multiple players whose contracts are not expiring at the end of this season has brought worries about the fates of the trio who are not tied down at the moment.

The suggestion could be that the expectation for one of those players to leave has freed up finances for other players to be extended.

It has been reported that Sporting Director Richard Hughes is very unhappy about inheriting this situation and wants to be proactive to avoid it in the future.