Ibrahima Konate is leaving Liverpool on a free transfer. (Image: Getty)
Arne Slot is not alone when it comes to facing serious criticism at Liverpool. The Liverpool manager has now welcomed his own sporting director, Richard Hughes, into the same unwanted club. The secret to running a successful football club is to learn from past mistakes. And not make them again.
Heck, even Manchester United are starting to pick up on the formula. But when it comes to Hughes, he seems somewhat slower on the uptake. Hughes has been left scrambling for his tin hat, after it emerged Ibrahima Konate will be leaving Anfield this summer.
Which means that instead of agreeing a contract extension with the French international, he will exit on a free transfer. Sound familiar?
This time 12 months ago Trent Alexander-Arnold did the same thing.
He ran down his contract and joined Real Madrid.
All Liverpool got in return was an £8.4m fee Real agreed to stump up, to accelerate the deal so Alexander-Arnold could take part in the upcoming Club World Cup.
In the space of a year, Liverpool will have lost two first-choice defenders without receiving a significant fee.
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And to prove this hasn’t been an oversight, Liverpool also allowed the contracts of Virgil Van Dijk and Mo Salah run down to within months of expiring, before handing them new ones which now appear unjustified.
Given Van Dijk’s form this season, the riches lavished on him now look foolish and unjustified, considering he will turn 35 during the World Cup.
While Salah still has 12 months remaining of the deal he penned in 2025, but has departed for nothing after the club reached an agreement with the Egyptian superstar.
Richard Hughes is about to lose another Liverpool player for free. (Image: Getty)
All of the above is bad business for any club.
Let alone one of Liverpool’s standing in the sport.
Hughes is paid the big bucks to excel in forward planning.
To keep the talent pool at Anfield evolving, so Liverpool can continue to challenge for the biggest trophies.
In April, Konate hinted that he wanted to remain on Merseyside.
He said: “There is a big chance I’m here next season. This is what I always wanted. I’m waiting to sort the contract but when everything is sorted you will have to ask Richard (Hughes), what I said to him in September, November – and he’s going to say something to make everyone quiet.”
He is now destined to end up at either Chelsea or Paris Saint-Germain next season.
While the silence emanating from Anfield is deafening – not golden.
With speculation mounting about the future of Joe Gomez, Andy Robertson heading to Tottenham, and new recruits Jeremy Jacquet and Giovanni Leoni working towards regaining full fitness, the case for Liverpool’s defence doesn’t stack up.
Liverpool’s success under former manager Jurgen Klopp was driven by smart decisions in the boardroom.
The number experts crunched them, to enable the German to build a formidable team.
One which, thanks to some naivety and incompetence from Hughes, is being dismantled – without those crucial new foundations being laid.