Speaking recently on the Football Writers Podcast, Ade Oladipo claimed that he cannot understand why Liverpool would let Georginio Wijnaldum leave the club this summer.
Since arriving at Liverpool from Newcastle in what was a £24.75 million deal back in 2016, Wijnaldum has gone on to make 186 appearances for the club, scoring 19 goals and providing 16 assists. He has also helped them to win the Premier League, the Champions League, the UEFA Supercup and the FIFA Club World Cup.
However, with only a year remaining on his current contract with the club, there have been reports that the 29-year-old could be on his way out of Anfield this summer, with the Dutchman yet to sign a new deal with Liverpool and Barcelona closely monitoring the situation of the midfielder.
The fact that Liverpool have so far failed to agree a new deal with Wijnaldum is something that Oladipo believes to be extremely poor on the part of Jurgen Klopp’s side, as, speaking on the Football Writers Podcast, he said:
“I don’t know if it comes down to wages with Wijnaldum. A contract has been offered and it’s been rejected numerous times, so, I’m guessing it does come down to pounds and pence.
“Wijnaldum is such an important player for Liverpool in their engine room. I think, again, he’s a player that maybe doesn’t get spoken about as much, Fabinho has come and dominated, and Henderson [is] obviously the Player of the Year, but Wijnaldum literally just links everything together.
“So it’s a shame if he does go. There’s a lot of talk of him going out and [Thiago] Alcantara coming in and I guess you can’t be upset with that, but the problem Liverpool had last season was depth. So I don’t think it should be a case of one star leaving [and] one star coming. If [Liverpool] want to compete with the likes of [Manchester] City and Bayern Munich in the Champions League, I think [Liverpool] need depth and I can’t see how both don’t come [and] play for Liverpool.
“For Liverpool’s sake, I think it’s important that they keep him.”
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TIF Thoughts…
From Oladipo’s comments, then, it is obvious that he believes Liverpool should not be prioritising the potential signing of Bayern Munich’s Thiago over keeping Wijnaldum at the club this summer and instead, he feels the club should try to add Thiago to their midfield options while also keeping Wijnaldum at Anfield.