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Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp insists the current contract situation with midfielder Georginio Wijnaldum is “absolutely fine” as he played down rumors of a move for Bayern Munich’s Thiago Alcántara.
The Dutch international is in the last nine months of his current contract and has been heavily linked with a move to Barcelona to meet former national team coach Ronald Koeman.
Klopp has downplayed the speculation, but has not provided a definitive answer on the 29-year-old’s future.
“Everything is fine with Gini. Absolutely fine about the future as far as we are concerned. I can’t speak for a few years, but everything is fine for now,” he said.
“You know the situation: between Gini, the club and me, everything is fine.
“Since Gini has been here I have had 500 or 600 conversations with him. Of course I have spoken with him since he returned from international service. But that’s it.”
There has been some criticism from sections of a disgruntled demanding fan base that the only transfer business Liverpool have done so far is signing Kostas Tsimikas for £ 11.7 million as cover for left-back Andy Robertson, after having sold defender Dejan Lovren to Zenit St Petersburg and allowed midfielder Adam Lallana to leave after his contract expired.
Wijnaldum’s immediate future ties to any interest Liverpool has in seeing Bayern midfielder Thiago move towards something more formal.
Klopp is an admirer of the Spanish international, but would not be attracted to rumors linking him to a movement.
“If he could come up with a word to end speculation, he would be really rich.”
“Did I mention that Thiago Alcantara has been a very good player for a long time? It’s good that we are linked with him, but that’s it.”
There has also been speculation that he links young Liverpool striker Rhian Brewster to a departure, either on loan or permanently.
“Rhian is our player, a wonderful kid and a great talent. He scored very good goals in the preseason,” Klopp said.
“A lot is happening. What I can say is that we are really with him, thinking about him, what is best for his development and how we can use him.”
“Nothing has been decided, otherwise they would already be there.”
Meanwhile, Klopp believes that defending his Premier League title is the best problem they can have.
The Reds raced to their first title in 30 years with seven games to spare from an interrupted season, but even before the trophies were lifted in the last game of Anfield’s campaign, questions were already being asked about whether they could repeat the feat. .
Manchester City have become the slight favorites and Klopp knows it won’t be easy to maintain the standards that have seen his team record 99 and 97 points in the last two seasons, losing only four times in that span, but that’s what wait. .
“Winning the league last year is the best problem you can have,” he said.
“If it’s a problem, then I don’t know, but everyone else gives me the feeling that it should be a problem.”
“Everybody wants to become champions, and that’s not news to me as I knew before.
“It’s about how we can put these intense performances on the field over and over again.
“The Premier League is the strongest league in the world, and that means we have more competitors than we really need.”
Liverpool will face an intriguing test tomorrow in their opening match at home against Marcelo Bielsa’s Leeds, winner of the Sky Bet Championship and back in the top flight after 16 years.
Bielsa has inspired several of the best coaches in the world, Manchester City’s Pep Guardiola and former Tottenham boss Mauricio Pochettino, but what Klopp remembers is the Argentine’s famous work ethic and (sometimes questionable) methods.
“I admire him, but I was never close enough to follow him,” said the Reds boss.
“Perhaps the hardest working of all of us, I don’t think we can compete with him in that area.
“When I think about the analysis he presented on the Derby game (Leeds was fined £ 200,000 for spying on the Derby training session in 2019) … that was fun too.
“We didn’t see any suspicious people at our training ground this week, so everything is fine.”
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