Georginio Wijnaldum 'not currently' in talks with Liverpool over new contract

Georginio Wijnaldum is not currently in contract talks with Liverpool, despite his deal being due to expire at the end of the season and the Dutchman already permitted to formally negotiate a potential pre-contract agreement with overseas clubs.

For the past few months, Wijnaldum has been the only key member of Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool squad not tied down to a long-term contract and that has shown little sign of changing.

Wijnaldum is running down his deal and appears to be in no rush to decide his future. Liverpool are vulnerable to losing him as a free agent, but the club’s stance this time last year was that it would be an acceptable path given the invaluable contributions he would still make before that time comes.

Liverpool could have sold the player over summer if they wanted to make sure they recouped some sort of transfer fee, but they didn’t, and they still won’t now because he offers more with them.

There is no bad blood in the situation because Wijnaldum is not itching to leave, while his level of commitment and professionalism means there is no need for Klopp to freeze him out.

But it may still be a concern to Liverpool fans keen not to see the team that has been crowned champions of England, Europe and the world in the last 18 months start to break up that Wijnaldum, as things stand, looks as though he could be leaving in summer.

David Ornstein of The Athletic has relayed that talks, as of right now, are ‘not ongoing’. That doesn’t mean the situation won’t change because it still could, but Liverpool are not expected to rush to offer a contract too good to turn down out of fear of losing the player.

A significant part of that is the lack of an obvious market for Wijnaldum. Barcelona were very heavily linked last summer and it would make sense given that former Netherlands coach Ronald Koeman is the man in charge at Camp Nou, but Barca’s finances continue to make recruitment difficult.

Wijnaldum is more recently being linked with Inter, although the Serie A side are unlikely to be able to do anything in that respect until they have solved their Christian Eriksen problem.

It gives Liverpool plenty of time to keep assessing the situation and decide what is best.

But if no agreement is reached and Wijnaldum does make his way on to the free agent market in the coming months, he could be a tremendous steal for any club with the resources to offer him the contract he is seeking because 90min ranks him among the top five central midfielders in the world.

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