Liverpool journalist James Pearce has been discussing Reds midfielder Georginio Wijnaldum and his immediate future as a Liverpool player.
This comes after Pearce recently made an appearance on The Athletic’s Liverpool-themed podcast The Red Agenda where he spoke about a number of topics concerning Jurgen Klopp’s side.
On the subject of Wijnaldum, who was linked with a move to Barcelona earlier in the current summer transfer window as he entered the final year of his Liverpool contract, Pearce had this to say on the midfielder’s current situation at the Merseyside club.
He said: “I think the fact that he’s been picked to play those opening two league games, I think, speaks volumes that Klopp clearly hasn’t got any doubts whatsoever about his immediate commitment to the cause in terms of this coming season.
“Rewind a few weeks, and the club’s stance was very much that they would only proceed with the Thiago [Alcantara] deal if another centre-midfielder was to leave and clearly, they were braced for a bid from Barcelona for Wijnaldum. It was well-documented that [Ronald] Koeman is a massive fan of his, but that bid wasn’t forthcoming and then the discussions that Klopp had with Wijnaldum after he came back from international duty were very positive.
“My information is that there’s still no sign of him suddenly going to be putting pen to paper on a new contract. I’m sure Liverpool will have another try at trying to do that, but the word at the moment is that even if that doesn’t happen, he will stay for the rest of this season.”
Liverpool signed the midfielder back in the summer of 2016 from fellow Premier League side Newcastle United for a fee of £24.75 million.
Since he arrived at Anfield, Wijnaldum has made a total of 189 appearances for the Reds in which he has managed to rack up a total of 19 goals and 16 assists along the way (per Transfermarkt).
As Pearce mentioned in the podcast, Wijnaldum has played the full 90 minutes in both of Liverpool’s first two Premier League games this season, earning himself a respectable season rating of 6.74/10 for his performances in the two matches (per WhoScored).
Do you think Wijnaldum will sign a new contract at Liverpool?
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TIF Thoughts…
It’s good to hear that Pearce believes Wijnaldum will be staying at Liverpool for the remainder of the season. If Wijnaldum does indeed stay at the Merseyside club until then, it’ll be interesting to see what his next move will be if he doesn’t sign a new contract at Liverpool before then as Pearce spoke about.