Georginio Wijnaldum is currently not in contract talks with Liverpool, although his deal expires at the end of the season and the Dutchman is already allowed to formally negotiate a possible pre-contract deal with foreign clubs.
In recent months, Wijnaldum has been the only key member of Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool side not linked to a long-term contract and that has shown little sign of change.
Wijnaldum is in the process of making his deal and doesn’t seem in a rush to decide on his future. Liverpool are vulnerable to the risk of losing him as a free agent, but the club’s position this time around last year was that it would be an acceptable path given the invaluable contributions they would still make before that time.
Liverpool could have sold the player over the summer if they wanted to make sure they recoup some sort of transfer fee, but they haven’t, and they still won’t now as he is offering more with them.
There’s no bad blood in the situation because Wijnaldum doesn’t feel like leaving, while his level of commitment and professionalism means Klopp doesn’t need to fire him.
But it may still be a concern for Liverpool fans keen not to see the team that have been crowned champions of England, Europe and the world for the past 18 months start to part ways as Wijnaldum, in the current state of affairs, seems to be able to be. departure in summer.
David Ornstein, of The Athletic, said talks, at the moment, are “not underway”. That’s not to say the situation won’t change, as it still could, but Liverpool is not expected to rush to offer a contract too good to refuse for fear of losing the player.
The lack of a clear market for Wijnaldum is an important part of this. Barcelona were very closely linked last summer and that would make sense given that former Netherlands coach Ronald Koeman is the man in charge of Camp Nou, but Barca finances continue to make recruiting difficult.
Wijnaldum is more recently linked with Inter, although the Serie A side are not in a position to do anything about it until they resolve their issue with Christian Eriksen.
This leaves Liverpool enough time to continue to assess the situation and decide what is best.
But if no deal is reached and Wijnaldum heads into the free agent market in the coming months, he could be a tremendous deal for any club with the resources to offer him the contract they are looking for because 90 mins ranks him among the top five central midfielders in the world.
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