Liverpool rumours 4

17 Nov 2025 18:02:55
Ed001 - some rumours are suggesting we are interested in Semenyo for January. Sorry if I have missed any of your comments - but what is your opinion or whether this would happen and whether this is the right transfer for us at the moment? Do you think we will add anyone else in January?

Thanks.

{Ed001's Note - we are interested, Salah's drop off in form has made it very possible that we try and sign him in Jan. For the team we have, with Isak and Ekitike as the centre forwards, a hard working player like him would be an excellent addition. I also expect the centre back issue to be rectified in Jan and at least one added.}

17 Nov 2025 18:21:47
Semenyo is a beast and would bring the physicality that we are lacking! Mo is a legend and always will be but we have to recognise when a player is on the decline and take sentiment out of it.

Bring Semenyo in from Jan when Mo will be off to AFCON and allow him to leave in summer if the right offer comes in. Bringing in Guehi too is also a priority.

17 Nov 2025 19:10:26
Thanks Ed - is the CB definately Guehi?

{Ed001's Note - he is the preferred choice, yes.}

17 Nov 2025 19:18:04
Ed’s, dos Semenyo count as a Homegrown Player?

{Ed001's Note - why would he not be? He is born and lived in England all his life.}

17 Nov 2025 19:21:42
We are 100% interested. His £65m release clause makes it plausible.

17 Nov 2025 19:43:03
Also Salah is off to AFCON and could miss up to 8 matches. I’d be keen for us to sign up and Guehi.

17 Nov 2025 20:16:51
Ed, the club only brought in European players in the off-season. Just coincidence or by design due to travel fatigue for South American based players? I know Semenyo plays for Ghana (born in England) so that potentially puts to bed avoiding players leaving for AFCON midseason.

17 Nov 2025 20:53:45
If Semenyo is brought in for Salah then I'd say that's a major oversight in awarding him a new deal. No disrespect intended to Mo. Most have him in an all time Liverpool XI and certainly a hero and legend to us all.

17 Nov 2025 22:27:34
I’ve no problem with Salah getting his contract. Even though his form has dipped he deserved it for getting us no20. It can’t just be form why half the team have dropped off? Even fitness is being blamed.

17 Nov 2025 22:36:28
Semen yo and eye sack could be lethal together.

17 Nov 2025 22:46:44
@Red_Flyer, not sure if you were here for last season or the lead up to VVD and Mo re-signing but most people on the board regarded Hughes, Ward, Edwards, FSG and anybody who expressed an alternate opinion as being very, very poor at what they do and that the failure to re-sign the players was the worst thing that could ever happen to the club.

18 Nov 2025 00:03:21
Scouse John imo two big problems is we can’t defend from the front and we can’t progress from the back. Semenyo and guehi would go a long way to help that.

It’s got people’s turning on wirtz. We can’t put him in the 10 when the wide players don’t know how to press and win a tackle and the midfielders and fullbacks behind him are indisciplined and can’t find him. He ends up moving around too much to get on the ball and we lose our structure because three of our back 4 are completely inept at finding him through the lines.

18 Nov 2025 03:19:43
WDW, I remember what I thought was the premature judgement of Hughes going into last season. I think he more than redeemed himself this last summer.

I like most on here wanted all 3 players to renew. I don't feel that Salah's drop off is permanent. His unbelievable season won us the league and I think and hope that he'll come good this season.

18 Nov 2025 13:24:38
Think some people hope Salahs drop off is permanent so we can take some of that lovely Saudi money. Only problem is he doesn't want to go there, he'll be back on form in no time.

17 Nov 2025 17:58:29
Ornstein has reported that Semenyo has a £65m release clause to be triggered by a set date, with another even lower value clause for the summer.

Make of it what you will.

16 Nov 2025 08:05:13
Konate demanding £325k apparently!

16 Nov 2025 09:15:51
What, to actually perform? Is he holding the club to ransom and will start playing properly again if he gets a massive pay rise? It’s a no from me, he’s been awful so far this season and in no way merits that amount of money. I don’t understand how he gets in the team ahead of Gomez at the moment.

16 Nov 2025 09:30:05
For anything in particular?

16 Nov 2025 09:36:33
Well then Konate gets sold in Janurary.

16 Nov 2025 09:52:56
I wouldn't pay him half that, he's been playing like a puppet with a couple of missing strings.
He can walk in the Summer, for me.

16 Nov 2025 09:53:11
Per year?

16 Nov 2025 09:58:17
Turkish lire or Drakmar?

16 Nov 2025 10:34:29
Few things to unpack here. Firstly, the whole defence has been poor this season, can say countless goals that have been van Dijk’s fault, so to single out Konate is somewhat unfair, but it is clear that there is fundamentally a reason for us being so poor defensively, we are the worst team in midfield defensively, our midfield offers absolutely no protection to our back four. So it’s no wonder they’re constantly exposed. This is something we see week in week out and is backed by statistics. You could have a prime Hansen and Lawrenson in defence any they’d struggle with out broken midfield in front of them. As for the calls to drop him or sell him.

Drop him for who? Gomez is far worse and more injury prone, it’s also true to say we don’t have anyone in the u23’s remotely capable of stepping up, and if we try to sell him, he’s under no obligation to accept a move in January when he can go for free in the summer, and whoever does make an offer it will be a pittance leaving us a very short window to bring in an adequate replacement, selling in January would be a stupid act of self sabotage. So it’s either we agree those terms and he signs or he leaves for free. If the club think he’s worth the wages then it’s not my problem to think about, if they don’t, he leaves as just another transient employee.

16 Nov 2025 12:18:47
Let’s hope Real are feeling flush 😁.

16 Nov 2025 12:03:14
Simple answer. 2 words and the the last one is off.

16 Nov 2025 12:19:26
Doubtful expectation or demands would be made public while negotiations are ongoing.

However, if Ibou was demanding such a figure, it would be in the knowledge that the club won't anywhere near those levels and his mind is already made up about leaving on a Bosman and securing a big signing on fee somewhere else.

At the start of the season I wanted Ibou to sign up to another contract. However, I think we have no witnessed his ceiling, and unfortunately it lacks the ball progression and even more importantly, the concentration and maturity required of an elite centreback. I am not of the opinion that we can replace him.

16 Nov 2025 12:28:37
Vic, Konate is by far one of the worst defenders that has ever played for the club. Yeah everyone in the defence has been bad, but when other players have to babysit Konate most games, it just adds pressure to the other players.

16 Nov 2025 13:05:29
I like ibou, he/ the defence hasn’t been as fragile as we are atm since klopp lost just about everyone who could play cb. I still put it down to the style of football we’re playing. If we are on the front foot attacking pressing high winning the ball back there’s less chance of conceding shots on goal.

I do think he is off though, something I read yesterday where he said he hopes to make announcement in the next few weeks? To me that’s January saying he’s off on free in summer.

16 Nov 2025 13:07:24
Sorry typos - now of the opinion that we can replace him!

16 Nov 2025 13:31:45
NicolBecker - bar far and away, one of the worst defenders that has ever played for the club? A bit extreme, that.

You should have watched Bjorn Tore Kvarme, Rigobert Song, Mamadou Sakho, Paul Konchesky, Julian Dicks, Philipp Degen, Phil Babb and Torben Piechnik.

I would say Ibou Konate is similar to Dejan Lovren. A title winning centreback that fell short of the elite level due to moments of madness.

16 Nov 2025 13:33:16
Victor . you are usually quite knowledgeable about players n iv seen you give some loads on here . but if you think it unfair to single Konate out then you're wrong. nevermind the midfield which I agree needs sorting badly. but when a player makes mistake after mistake, n his general play is dreadful.

even simple passes or headers out never reach their target . he costs us goals every week n now he supposedly wants £325 a week . he is one player id let go for free n im usually against that, even though i wanted him sold earlier on in the season. but got told on here that not how we treat players.

16 Nov 2025 13:49:31
NicolBecker Glory - whilst it's not a high bar, he's arguably better than: Pietchnik, Kvarme, Traore, Pellegrino, Kyrigiakos, Song, Coates, Sakho and possibly on par with Lovren in terms of top 10 Premier league era poor CBs.

16 Nov 2025 14:08:38
I wouldn’t pay him £325 a week never mind 325k.

16 Nov 2025 15:02:18
Startling statistic, only Wolves have conceded goals at a higher rate than LFC since the beginning of May, in the top 5 leagues in Europe.
Konate is a dud, he will not improve, there is no way he should not be paid anything above what an average squad player in the Premiership is paid.

The best thing about him joining Madrid? We can score goals against him/ them and prey on his obvious limitations.
On another note, just watched the penalty Ireland got against Hungary, Kirkez at fault, losing his man with a simple long ball over the top.

16 Nov 2025 15:15:11
I personally would prefer to give Gomez a run in the team.

16 Nov 2025 15:17:59
Absolutely ridiculous comment NicolBecker. There’s legitimate criticism and abuse, and your bizarre rant is nothing more than mindless abuse. To suggest he is one of the worst defenders ever to play for the club just beggars belief. He is so rubbish that he only has Real, Bayern and PSG sniffing around for his signature. He’s so rubbish that he has a premier league winners medal, of which he played a substantial part of winning the league, he’s so rubbish that we apparently decided not to look at other defenders when we signed him and waited a year to do so.

Fact remains, our defence are constantly exposed by the absolute lack of defensive competence in midfield. And as for the comment that he’s at fault for a goal every week, Van Dijk has been directly at fault for far more this season, but doesn’t get the abuse. Like it or not, until midfield is fixed this will continue. The shortcomings in all of our defenders games are horribly exposed by a midfield that couldn’t fight their way out of a wet paper bag, much less provide adequate defensive cover.

16 Nov 2025 15:37:19
VV, would they be sniffing around if he had 3 yrs left on his contract with LFC? I very much doubt it, the fact he can sign without a transfer fee makes him far more appealing I suspect. If it doesn’t work out in his new club, they will sell him and make a very nice profit in the process.

When signed, he was a young player who LFC thought would improve, has he? I don’t think so.
Like you, I certainly don’t think he is one of the worst, there have been lots worse, but that doesn’t mean he is very good, he was part of a very good team last year, but I would say he was the poorest first team player in that winning team.

16 Nov 2025 16:19:14
Agree with victor.

16 Nov 2025 19:14:19
He's obviously not a world class CB but he's obviously not one of the worst either. Fa t is, and iv been saying this for some time, is that VVD has been so immense he has covered for others shortcomings and led other lesser defenders to being the best they can be.

There was always going to be a massive downturn when VVD either left, retired or started to fade as he got older. The latter is happening unfortunately and we were not ready for it.

16 Nov 2025 21:32:41
Never rated him. Nice fella. But whilst everyone loved him he’s always been Bambi on Ice to me. Big clumsy and weak.

16 Nov 2025 22:51:15
Nicol becker give ya head a wobble.

17 Nov 2025 06:49:21
If Konate does decide he is leaving its essential we get someone in January. VVD can't go on forever, Gomez isn't able to play consistently and Leoni will be coming back from a bad injury.
He is reportedly on £70k a week currently, quadrupling plus a bit based on his current form would be crazy, there is a player in there but also a headless chicken.

17 Nov 2025 08:16:54
Our contract talks seem to go long into the season generally, must be a nightmare to plan transfers against that backdrop. It’s probably a major reason why we haven’t reinforced at centre back as anyone really good will want to know they’ll be starting for us. If there’s big contract talks ongoing you don’t pay £200k plus for someone to sit on the bench.

{Ed001's Note - if they are not good enough to replace Konate, why on earth would we be trying to sign them anyway? Sorry but you are talking nonsense. It is simple to plan, we want to replace our weak link and that is who we sign. We never signed one because we never moved for another, which we should have done. The plan had been to sign three centre-backs in the summer, we signed one. That is a big failing and has meant we are stuck with having to keep using a player that we were trying to replace for not being good enough and then wondering why he is hopeless.}

17 Nov 2025 09:07:45
Ed001, who was the third CB after Guehi and Leoni? Was the plan to move Konate and Gomez on with those two and another coming in?

{Ed001's Note - there were a few we were interested in, mainly younger players in the mould of Leoni.}

17 Nov 2025 11:14:04
Nicol bar have you watched old games, he’s far from the worst and was good last year, any defender who plays right side for us now would look shot.

17 Nov 2025 11:21:40
Konate is a bang average player. Man City beat us by literally targeting him in and out of possession. He is not good at any fundamental aspect of football. He's just tall and fast which allows him to mask the fact he is bad technically and very physically weak.

Man City were able to make us look poor by just letting Konate have the ball and standing Haaland on Virgil because they knew Konate would give it away or play someone else into trouble. Then when they had the ball Haaland left Virgil alone and went and played on Konate because he knew he could bully him. Konate was weak in the air for their first goal, and gave Doku far too much room for their 3rd goal.

He's not a good player. Nicol's comment is hyperbole at it's finest because he's miles off being the worst defender to play for the club, but Victor, you are a hypocrite of the highest order. If Konate was not a Liverpool player, you'd absolutely slate him, like you did with Guehi in the summer. Like you do with every player we're linked with who isn't absolutely impervious.

He needs to be replaced. As Ed001 said, Konate is a weak link.

17 Nov 2025 12:02:01
MK, it's arguable that none of the back 4 we've tried this season have been great.

Our issue starts up front for me with neither wide forward working hard to track back (like Diaz and Nunez did until it became the obvious Slot didn't want him), not using Grav as a dedicated 6 to drop back when one of the fullbacks goes forward leads to massive holes through the middle and all of our fullbacks are attack minded (Bradley being the most defensive minded, but even then his qualities seem more wingback than fullback) .

Ed001 I remember Air Boudlal being mentioned, is he still on our radar?

{Ed001's Note - I believe so yes.}

17 nov 2025 13:33:23
hi ed, not sure if it was me you were saying was talking nonsense. point i was making was that if we’re offering anything like £200k a week to konate i presume that’s for him to be a starter not a squad player. according the reports we have made an offer for him to stay, and we’re now back at the table in terms of negotiations. that would raise questions for me if i was a potential new player coming in.

if we’re not offering him a new contract then it then raises a question why we haven’t signed a replacement. i suppose we were very close with guehi, and maybe we know we will be getting him in the summer, but which do you think it is?

are we trying to keep him and have offered him a new contract, or is it more likely that his camp is making out he’s turned down our initial offer but we haven’t actually offered him anything.

{Ed001's Note - we offered him something but nothing like he wants. But I believe he is being an arse and asking for what he knows he won't get so he can claim he wanted to stay but the club didn't value him. In reality I believe he wants out.}

17 Nov 2025 13:47:29
That's the impression I get too, Ed. He's asking for an amount he knows he won't get so he can move on.

Ordonez, Diomande or Jacquet are more than adequate replacements in my opinion.

17 Nov 2025 15:23:00
Hopefully we buy one of them in Jan, so we don’t have to endure a full season of this with Konate and can relegate him to the bench. At least with Trent we had Connor to deputise, it doesn’t look like Jo Gomez is going to get games in place of Konate.

14 Nov 2025 23:30:53
Someone send me a video earlier, about Chris Lawler asking Shankly for tickets for a cup final for Ringo Starr. Shankly said no. Lawyer asked why not its for Ringo Star, Shanks said have you ever seen Ringo Starr in the Kop, Lawler said no, Shanks said neither have i, Them tickets is for the fans that go the games 😅.

15 Nov 2025 08:35:53
Nice story @Strom, reminded me of the other story about the two of them. Shanks liked to play in the 5-a-sides at the end of the training sessions and Chris Lawler who was a very quiet fella by nature was reffing a game when Shanks scored a dubious goal that would have been the winner.

Anyway, Shanks turned around and said to Lawler ‘that was onside right? ’ And Chris Lawler said ‘no you were offside’.
‘Great’ says Shanks ‘you haven’t spoken for years and the first thing you say is a lie’.

15 Nov 2025 10:15:52
WDW - I might of misread a story over the years about Tommy Lawerence not saving a penalty in a practice training session in which shanks was one of the penalty takers and allegedly telling lawerence that if it was a meat pie he would of saved it!

Sorry if it’s wide of the mark but you other old uns might know different! 😂👍.

15 Nov 2025 11:03:46
I heard that but it was about if it was under the crossbar ( no nets)

15 Nov 2025 11:18:23
Wdw . that's funny, Shanks seemed to have everything in his locker didn't he . Chris Lawlers niece was in my class in junior school n Lawler n his Mrs came in from time to time to pick her up. looking back I can't remember him speaking much.

15 Nov 2025 20:43:33
@Chrissy, that was the version I heard. Back in the 70’s I went out for a while with the daughter of the players in the 60s and I got to meet a few of the past and present players at the time.

To a kid who was in awe they were all like giants to me (they still are when I look back they still are) and I can say that Chris Lawler was a aquifer fella by nature.

15 Nov 2025 20:57:20
@Strom, I was lucky enough, not necessarily to meet him, but to be at social events that he was attending. He just had an aura around him, to me as a young lad. I wish I had a story about him but at 5he time I was just dumbstruck and never took the chance to speak to him.

14 Nov 2025 22:34:32
Busy day for Liverpool on the BBC Gossip page

Olise (source Fichajes)
Gnarby (Bild)
Semenyo (Sky)
Upamecano (Metro)

January is looming on the horizon!

15 Nov 2025 01:34:59
If we replace Konate with Upamacano that would be like replacing Les McKeown with Rick Astley.

15 Nov 2025 06:23:58
Never going to give you up, never going to let you down. Never going to run around and desert you.

15 Nov 2025 07:04:06
And it's Bye Bye Baby to both.

15 Nov 2025 08:54:21
Can’t see any logical reason to go for Gnabry, 30 years old and injury prone. As for Upamecano, he’s a Waitrose Djimi Traore, terrible defender.

15 Nov 2025 11:14:16
For some reason the press seem to think any footballer available in a 'free' appeals, and if that footballer has had any connection to the club in the last 10 years, then that's 2 + 2 = 5 .
More important to get stories out, than anything of substance .


It seems a connection to the club or inside information to what the club wants or needs is no longer important .
Remembering that today's headlines are tomorrow's chip papers!

15 Nov 2025 16:08:09
Solid links:

Joel Ordonez (CB)
Antoine Semenyo (LW/ RW)
Ayyoub Bouaddi (DM)
Marc Guehi (CB)

Softer links:

Jeremy Jacquet (CB)
Ousmane Diomande (CB)
Nico Schlotterbeck (CB)
Malick Fofana (LW/ RW)
Lucien Agoume (DM)
Adam Wharton (DLP)

No links, but wish there were:

Carlos Baleba (DM)

15 Nov 2025 23:40:09
Would take Diomande or Ordonoz now and Guehi in the summer.
Semenyo would be wise business but I would prefer Olise even if we have to wait til the summer.

16 Nov 2025 07:54:30
There’s going to be a big price difference between Olise and Semenyo so it may end up being about money, and how much we need for a centre half or two, and a centre mid.

Another big dilemma remains Wirtz. If he’s a 10 wed need a different centre mid two behind him, and if he’s in as left side attack not sure Kerkez can play. Sadly I could see us selling Wirtz if Real would stump up £80m plus, as I’m not sure we can afford to build a team around him given the challenge we’ve got replacing Mo and VVD.

16 Nov 2025 12:34:29
I'd agree with you on that, shughes55.

My only concerns on Semenyo are (i) age - he is 26 soon and (ii) how he would fare being faced with a low-block on a regular basis?

Whether he's gettable in January, I have no idea. The good thing is that Ghana didn't qualify for AFCON, so he won't be missing a chunk of the season for that this time around.

Joel Ordonez seems gettable in January - should have done it in the summer regardless.

Sounds like we are among a long list of clubs that want Lille DM wonderkid, Ayyoub Bouaddi. If he is on the move in January and he fancies Anfield, don't be surprised if we move for him to avoid missing out.

Outside of Bouaddi, there's not much else re midfield re-enforcements.

You wonder if Man Utd made a serious move for Carlos Baleba in January, whether we would stand aside or get involved. Hard to say as the links to him have been weak at best. But, we have been known to bring forward signings for targets (eg Diaz, Gakpo) when rivals start to make moves for them.

14 Nov 2025 20:17:25
Evening Reds,

Been told Liverpool are going to throw the cheque book in for Semenyo in January.

14 Nov 2025 20:49:56
This would be a good idea, Salah will come out of this spell and prove us all wrong again but he isn't going to go on forever so now is the time to bring his deputy in.

14 Nov 2025 20:52:41
Fingers crossed. Would be a great signing but would almost confirm a Chiesa exit. As exciting as it is, it means nothing if Slot refuses to change his negative tactics.

14 Nov 2025 21:09:24
Do you think so FK? I'd of moreso assumed Rio to go on loan at an older age but going back amongst the younger lads for time being. I don't see Salah being here next season so don't see Chiesa being surplus or overstocked. Equally Chiesa is 28 same age we were after shifting Diaz so you may well be right.

14 Nov 2025 21:09:47
Mo has 18 months left in Jan and, in reality has to be sold with a year on his contract if its going to be for a big fee.
The side is not set up for him anymore, and that is not going to change. Graft is required from all areas of the pitch these days.

The man is never going to play second fiddle, and his form has always been very poor following AFCON. It may well be that it will soon be time for him to part ways.

14 Nov 2025 21:30:56
Do people still use cheque books?

14 Nov 2025 21:49:47
Offer them Elliot and cash.

14 Nov 2025 22:41:08
@Dr B, I honestly think we’ve missed our chance for genuinely big money for Mo. He won’t be wanted by anybody in Europe, certainly for a big fee and the only hope is for someone in Saudi or Qatar with more money than sense and even then I think the biggest we could hope for is (I can’t believe I was going to use the word ‘only’) £50m and that number will decrease unless Mo can find some form.

15 Nov 2025 08:20:48
West Derby Wanderer IV - He is the arabic Ronaldo, whos marketing potential and symbolic value to the Saudi league is unparalleled. Its 150m all the way but it has to be soon.

{Ed001's Note - but he doesn't want to go to Saudi. It would mean leaving his family behind.}

15 Nov 2025 09:00:51
His family want to stay in England ed1? R would it be they want to stay in Europe?

15 Nov 2025 09:08:23
If his family don't want Saudi then he'll be here until at LEAST the summer of 2027.I personally would be very happy with that, the man will still get 20 goals from the wing this season. How many others do that.

{Ed001's Note - he doesn't want to go to Arabia either. He is very happy and settled in Liverpool, loves his family life and that he can live his life his way. If he was in Arabia, he would not get a moment's peace, he wants to be able to work on his recovery, training etc without interruption, which he doesn't get out there or when he goes back for international duty. On international duty, the EFA will literally bring guests to his hotel room in the early hours of the night, even when the team are playing a match the next day. He doesn't like that. He is happy with a life mostly in Liverpool but with holidays here in Dubai, where again people don't bother him and they can just enjoy being normal holidaymakers.}

15 Nov 2025 10:01:42
Thats good Ed, personally i'd love to see him hang up his boots here. I think that's the way it should be for alltime 11 legends like him and Virg if that's what they want.

{Ed001's Note - that is what he wants.}

15 Nov 2025 11:40:44
A couple of years hard work for half a billion would buy a hospital and pay for Mo's charitable ventures, but i could see why a move on a free to Bayern would be more satisfying from a footballing and lifestyle perspective.

I think the riches on offer could tempt most, but maybe Mo is beyond that. Guess we'll know fairly soon, once he's competing with Semenyo and no longer guaranteed to start.

15 Nov 2025 13:56:52
He’s going to have to retire one day why not retire here? He’s been a model pro and could could still serve the club well doesn’t have to be playing. It sounds like his family is settled and happy here why would he want to disrupt that? I hope he stays and gets some sort of ambassador role.

15 Nov 2025 18:35:10
scouse john L8 - we need the cash to complete the rebuild -our squad is unbalanced as it is.

16 Nov 2025 05:44:24
You back in Dubai ed? Just been here for a short break and heading back to the U. K. soon.

{Ed001's Note - yes mate.}