Liverpool in ‘talks’ to offload star Andoni Iraola ‘likes a lot’ – top sources
Liverpool could leave Andoni Iraola dangerously short in central midfield with Curtis Jones on course to join Inter Milan and another midfielder now the subject of talks with a LaLiga side, per reports.
Liverpool’s primary goal right now, at least as far as arrivals go, remains signing both of Bradley Barcola and Ibrahim Mbaye from PSG.
If successful, Liverpool would have bought three new wingers this summer, with Victor Munoz already banked.
There’s been major change in defence too, with Jeremy Jacquet – who wowed in Liverpool’s final pre-season friendly versus Como on Sunday – and Ronald Araujo (loan) both arriving.
Regarding the midfield, there are currently no plans to make a signing, which is all the more surprising given developments around Curtis Jones and Stefan Bajcetic.
On Monday morning, transfer guru, Fabrizio Romano, brought news of LaLiga side Getafe being in talks to sign 21-year-old Bajcetic.
Getafe in talks to sign Stefan Bajcetic from Liverpool
He wrote on X: “Getafe have opened talks to sign Stefan Bajcetić from Liverpool. Formula being discussed.”
Whether the discussions centre around a loan or permanent deal wasn’t made clear by the reporter.
In any case, a prior update from fellow top journalist, Matteo Morreto, revealed Bajcetic is on board with returning to his home country if Liverpool decide to part ways.
Reporting last month, Morreto stated: “Iraola likes him a lot. Several teams in Spain want him: Rayo Vallecano, Getafe.
“But Iraola wants to keep him for now; he wants to see him during pre-season.
“If he stays, he’ll renew his contract with Liverpool. If not, he’ll look for another club. He wants to return to Spain.”
Bajcetic’s current contract at Anfield is due to expire next summer. As such, the only way a loan deal would be viable is if the player signs an extension first. Alternatively, Bajcetic could simply be sold to Getafe right now.
Curtis Jones on course to join Inter Milan
Jones is also in line to depart, with the midfielder desperate to leave his boyhood club and sign for Serie A champions, Inter Milan.
And over the weekend, two barriers to the deal were both removed at roughly the same time.
Firstly, Liverpool have dropped their asking price down from £34m to £30m. Inter have previously bid £26m earlier in this window, and do plan to make a new and improved offer.
Secondly, Inter needed to offload Davide Frattesi before they’d launch that new bid, and the Italian has since been loaned to Lazio, with his deal containing an option to buy.
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If Liverpool do wave goodbye to Jones and Bajcetic, Iraola’s midfield options will be down to five – Alexis Mac Allister, Ryan Gravenberch, Dominik Szoboszlai, Wataru Endo and Trey Nyoni.
For a club with genuine ambitions of competing for trophies on four fronts, it’ll only take a couple of injuries to that quintet before the squad is stretched to breaking point.
