A prominent journalist has claimed that Liverpool ‘had little option’ but to sanction an exit for Curtis Jones, who’s reportedly on the verge of joining Inter Milan.
Fabrizio Romano revealed on Wednesday afternoon that a ‘verbal agreement’ has been reached between the two clubs for a £30m transfer to proceed, with a ‘medical being planned’ for the midfielder ahead of his proposed move to the San Siro.
There’s a discrepancy between various sources as to whether or not the deal has evolved to that extent – The Athletic maintained that an agreement is ‘not yet in place’ – but the direction of travel is blindingly obvious.
Pearce: Liverpool ‘had little option’ but to sanction Jones’ exit
In an article for The Athletic about Jones’ impending transfer to the Serie A champions, James Pearce wrote that there has been ‘a sense of inevitability’ that the 25-year-old would leave Liverpool this summer, with the midfielder having entered the last 12 months of his contract and being keen on joining the Nerazzurri.
Talks over an extension to his current deal had ‘long since stalled’, and ‘the writing was on the wall’ once the Toxteth native didn’t feature in the recent games against Monaco and Como.
Pearce concluded by saying: ‘Losing the only Scouser who is established in [Andoni] Iraola’s first-team squad will be a source of regret for many supporters, but with Jones keen to leave, Liverpool had little option but to sanction his exit.’
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Can Liverpool replace Jones before the market shuts?
The journalist is quite right – it’s a massive shame that the Reds are losing the only local player in their senior squad, especially for such a meagre fee given his age profile and experience, but the club will feel they were left with no alternative.
Had they flatly refused to sell Jones to Inter, Iraola would’ve been left with an unhappy player and LFC would’ve run the risk of losing him on a free transfer next summer, just as they did with Mo Salah, Andy Robertson and Ibrahima Konate this year.
We still believe that the 25-year-old is worth more than £30m in today’s market, but reaping that much for him would still be preferable to seeing him walk away for nothing in 2027, especially as the chances of him extending his contract seemed minimal.
Jones’ impending exit lessens the midfield depth at Iraola’s disposal, and if one or more of Dominik Szoboszlai, Ryan Gravenberch and Alexis Mac Allister were to be ruled out for any significant length of time, our options in the middle of the park would feel worryingly light this season.
Can Richard Hughes pull a rabbit out of the hat and bring in a replacement for the Italy-bound Scouser, in addition to reinforcing the Reds’ attack in the final two weeks of the transfer window? This is the time when Liverpool’s sporting director needs to well and truly earn his money.
The first thing to say is why have we left so many players get to the last year of their contract? Seems beyond careless to me… or have many been hedging their bets when Slot was in charge?
On Jones… when he first broke into the team, I thought we had a great player in the making.. but (perhaps Slot again) Curtis has gone backwards in the last two seasons… too many careless passes and too often holding up the ball too long… I would have liked Iraola to have had him for this season as he might have got him back on track.. shame really
I am not too unhappy that Jones has gone. To be truthful he had become more of a player who was thinking of himself more than the team.
The tantrum over receiving or not receiving the capt arm band was, to me, his saying I am capt because I am a scouser. I want a capt selected on overall ability and to be honest he does not have that kind of game control.
May he be happier in Italy. Good luck Curtis.
It’s a good thing for Liverpool football club and for the player. 30 million is better than nothing . The sooner 1892 holdings puts someone who’s fit to run the transfer strategy , on buying selling players, sorting contracts out, the better. Another nine players wil. leave for nothing next season.
Richard Hughes sporting director isn’t fit for purpose.
The best transfer business we could ever do is to move him on .