Ex-player: Naby KEITA

Who would have expected that …

Anyone still willing to give him a new deal?

:joy:

Probably not for the obvious reason.

Genuinely wouldn’t be surprised if Klopp’s told him to stay away from the squad and use this time to start looking for a new club & if that turns out to be true, I applaud it.

That makes no sense.

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Yeah, Keita surely wants to play in order to attract more clubs, have more options, etc. Maybe it was just Klopp being unhappy with one or a few of his last outings, no training well enough, lacking fitness. So more focus went on players who are performing now and/or will be here next season. If we can get anything more from Keita between now and the end of the season, I’m happy to welcome that. Right now it’s about securing top 4, I don’t care how.

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Well sure it does, we don’t need him. He knows Klopp knows we don’t need him so why bother coming back to Liverpool when he’s free to go where he wants and talk to who he wants? So many times you get players at the end of their contracts and it’s 3-4 months, maybe half way into a new season, before they find a new club.

Your mistake was expecting any.

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Obviously not good for the lad but the fact he still plays for his country and gets injured is bad news for any club wanting him.

What a waste of talent.

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Very much looking forward to this no longer being our problem.

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Who is honestly surprised?

What a waste of transfer money and salary Keïta has been.

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Yep. It’s a shame for the club, but also for Naby too.

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No hiding from the fact that he didn’t become what we all thought and hoped, so that means yeah, what we got from him certainly isn’t enough compared to what he cost us.

That was clear maybe towards or definitely in his second season. That his ceiling wouldn’t be worth that, but there was still a pretty good player there when he’s fit.

He had a lot of good games and periods. The biggest problems were injuries and also a little bit the intensity of the league I feel. But the former much more. And I can’t blame players for that, unless we have clear evidence of acting/living unprofessional.

I have more of a problem with transfers or flops who we bought and were moved on very quickly (or we wished to move them on), players who you from day 1 just didn’t see how they fit at all or were simply not good enough (Carroll, Balotelli, Benteke, Downing first spring to mind, there are more, at least for me). Keita, despite not being a success, wasn’t that.

Despite him not being a top player and not looking like he would ever hit those heights, if he was fit more often, there was certainly a comfortably good enough player there for this Liverpool under Klopp.

Hence why he actually got a few years here and I certainly can’t blame the club for sticking with him for a while. Knowing that sales are not in out 100% control all the time, especially when you’re at the top of the foodchain on the pitch and in wages. It’s hard to get rid of some players sometimes.

So, yeah… not a great story, he was too expensive for what we got from him, but I can think of much worse moves and decisions by the club to buy certain players and have them here for a few years.

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I’ll never understand the animosity towards injury prone players, unless as you say there is proof that they are wilfully careless and they are not taking care of themselves. No one would prefer doing rehab on his own instead of training and playing. In regard to Keita, both himself and the club can feel cheated. He looked the complete package but with him missing more than half the games, it was impossible to become even a fraction of what was anticipated.

One of the biggest “what if” of the last several years.

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I guess we might have hoped he hadn’t kept going on international duty and coming back injured. Apart from that of course you’re right.
His price and potential salary just keep on falling. That can’t be what he wants.

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At this point it’s not even a concern.

He had sort of been frozen out and if he plays again it will be a cameo.

I will also never criticize a player for wanting to play for his national team. Not only objectivelly as a football fan, knowing what that means to a lot of players nor subjectivelly as a Liverpool fan. In the latter case, I’m also proud when we have international players, when they’re regularly called up, important, successful, etc. Surely, you have the odd case like Matip when the motivation level isn’t as high, when there are some issues that lead to him stopping early. But I bet I cannot even imagine what it must mean for someone like Naby Keita to represent Guinea and for Guinea to have someone like him whenever he’s fit. And yes, sometimes the player struggles because of it. We are the ones buying these players and there’s also always a bit of luck involved.

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Episode 2 Whatever GIF

Can you please just stop being so sensible!

Now I can’t be mad at Naby :rage:

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It is just pure bad luck that he wasn’t offloaded at the right time!