Liverpool enter talks to extend contracts of star defenders in major boost to Arne Slot
Today at 03:58 AM
Ibrahima Konate and Jarell Quansah are in talks to extend their contracts at Liverpool, talkSPORT understands.
The news comes as a huge boost to boss Arne Slot amid uncertainty over the futures of Virgil van Dijk, Mohamed Salah and Trent Alexander-Arnold.
It is believed that negotiations are at an early stage with France international Konate.
The 25-year-old has two years left on his deal at Anfield following his £36million arrival from RB Leipzig in 2021.
He has forged a formidable partnership with Van Dijk in the heart of defence, which has seen the Premier League leaders concede just twice from their opening seven games.
Since his transfer from Germany, Konate has struggled with injury setbacks, which saw Quansah introduced into the line-up last campaign.
In what was his breakthrough season, the 21-year-old academy graduate made 33 appearances in all competitions under Jurgen Klopp.
Quansah even managed to find the back of the net twice from his 17 top-flight outings.
And it is understood that the England Under-21 international seems set to agree terms to extend his stay beyond 2027.
Despite featuring regularly last term, game time has been hard to come by for Quansah under Slot‘s tutelage due to Konate and Van Dijk’s partnership.
He has been limited to just two matches, with his only Premier League appearance coming on the opening day of the season away at Ipswich.
While talks with Quansah and Konate is positive news for Liverpool, the club are still yet to make a breakthrough with Salah, Van Dijk and Alexander-Arnold.
The trio are all tied down in Merseyside until the summer of 2025, and are free to talk to clubs outside the UK from January regarding a free transfer.
Salah has heavily linked with a switch to Saudi Arabia next year with it believed that Alexander-Arnold is on Real Madrid’s radar.
Slot refused to discuss the situation of his star players in his press conference on Friday prior to their 1-0 win at Crystal Palace.
Asked if there was an update regarding the three players, the Dutchman said: ” It’s the same boring answer as always.
“I could really understand if you ask me this once every two weeks.
“But if you ask me this after two or three days again then you still get the same answer and people feel that I’m boring them!
“So, try it after the international break again!”
