Anfield Watch
·9 May 2024
Anfield Watch
·9 May 2024
Liverpool are now set to lose a ‘world-class’ player as reports claim he’ll depart at the end of the season.
The Athletic claim Thiago is definitely leaving Liverpool this summer with the end of his contract. It will bring an end to a four-year spell at Anfield that so nearly delivered everything.
Of course, this isn’t a shock. Everyone expected Thiago to depart at the end of the season as he’s barely played across this campaign.
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The Spaniard is now 33, too, making a new contract almost impossible. Thiago, essentially, isn’t a player to invest in long-term.
Liverpool won’t be doing that, opening the door for Thiago to leave elsewhere on a free transfer once his deal ends on June 30th.
Admittedly, this exit was pretty predictable back in 2020 when Thiago first signed for Liverpool. There was never any great chance that the Reds would sell him before his contract expired, nor would anyone have expected a new contract at any point.
After all, it was an anomaly that they signed a 29-year-old in the first place. Liverpool have only signed three players for a transfer fee over the age of 26 under Jurgen Klopp: Ragnar Klavan, Thiago, and Wataru Endo.
And so with Thiago on £250k per week, the club would have known at the time that Thiago was unlikely to stick around beyond 33. Unless, of course, he was willing to take a massive paycut.
Injuries, though, even ruled that out. Thiago has featured in just one Premier League game this season and he picked up an injury in it. There’s now no chance he ever plays for the club again, meaning his last start came in March 2023. In fact, that’s the last time he ever played at Anfield.
Thiago does leave having left a mark, however. He was a standout player in the 2021/22 campaign - one that saw Liverpool just two games from the quadruple. Jurgen Klopp was labelling him ‘world-class’ in that run-in and Thiago felt like one of the world’s best players.
There will just forever be a sense that he could have delivered far more.
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