One of the players potentially in line for a starting berth in Sunday’s League Cup Final is Naby Keita. The Guinean has managed to stay fit this season and has put in some decent performances. Unfortunately for Naby, there is stiff competition in the midfield three with the likes of Fabinho and Thiago vying for inclusion from the start.
Italian football website Calciomercato has reported that Italian giants Juventus are considering bidding for the 27-year-old in the summer transfer window.
On the latest episode of our Journo Insight Show, we asked Goal.com’s Neil Jones if Liverpool have a difficult decision to make this summer regarding Keita.
Neil said:
“I think that regardless, whatever happens between now and the end of the season. I think he would be one of the players that, if he is not in the side on Sunday, would be most hurt. He has tended to start a lot of big games. I know a couple of high-profile ones he was taken off in, Real Madrid in the Champions League. He started the Champions League semi-final in the Nou Camp. Juventus take a lot of pride in their exploitation of contract situations. They’ve just signed Dennis Zakaria who has been linked with Liverpool quite a lot in the past, they got him with six months left of his deal. They’ve just bought Vlahovic; they took advantage of the fact that he wasn’t going to sign a contract at Fiorentina. I think Liverpool will have a decision to make on Keita. Whether they give him a new contract, whether they let him run it down, which I think would be unlike them given the money they have paid for him and the money they could potentially recoup for him in that regard.”
As Neil correctly points out, Juventus have a rich history of signing out of favour midfielders on cut-price deals, the most famous example being the signing of Andrea Pirlo on a free transfer in 2011.
Even Liverpool’s famously hard negotiating transfer committee will not be able to recoup all of the £52 million fee spent on Keita. This summer could be the last opportunity to bring in a reported fee of around £30 million for the Guinea captain.
Naby has always found it difficult to put a run of games together, and is now behind the likes of Fabinho and Thiago in the pecking order for a midfield position.
A move to Juventus could be the opportunity he needs to carry on his career at a massive club and compete to win trophies. Liverpool are believed to be looking to strengthen the midfield in the summer, which would only add to the difficulty of holding down a regular starting spot.
