Jurgen Klopp would love Gini Wijnaldum to stay at Liverpool, but seems resigned to the fact the Dutchman will depart on a free transfer come the end of the season.
The boss has lauded his no.5 while suggesting that a similar situation to what happened with Emre Can is possibly on the horizon.
Right now, Wijnaldum will be available for any club in Europe to offer a Bosman deal to in just five weeks’ time. – a rather scary prospect.
“I would be happy if he would stay here. I’m pretty happy with Gini [as] you see when you look at most of the line-ups!” Klopp told us at yesterday’s press-conference.
“He was always good. I cannot remember a lot of bad games, he played for us plenty of positions, he’s in a good moment and long may it continue.
“As long as nothing is decided, everything is possible and I’m positive.
“Gini is one of the best people I ever trained and he’s an outstanding person. It means no issue at all. It’s professional, our relationship didn’t change at all.
“We had situations like this with Emre Can for example. He gave us absolutely everything until the last day of his contract.
“Gini will do the same, no doubt about that and no harm for our relationship whatsoever.”
The reality is that by the end of this season, Gini will have given us five years of exceptional service and that we’ve still got our money’s worth despite losing him on a free…
But when you consider, as Klopp mentions, how often he’s in the starting XI, it’s his consistency and tactical nous we’ll truly miss.
He’s a leader in our side and one that Klopp can utterly rely on. We have other midfielders, but many of them are injury prone.
It’ll be a sad day when Wijnaldum departs Anfield.