Ibrahim Konate
Jurgen Klopp has spoken of his excitement after Ibrahima Konate was finally able to join up with his Liverpool squad. Konate became the club’s first summer signing back in May, joining from German side RB Leipzig. The Frenchman put pen to paper on a five-year deal at Anfield after the Reds paid the £36m release clause in his Leipzig contract. Konate participated in his first training session as a Liverpool player on Monday as the Reds kicked-off their Austrian pre-season training camp. And while acknowledging that the 22-year-old may need time to adapt to the way his new side operates, Klopp has revealed that he plans to hold talks with Konate on a regular basis to ensure he is settling in.
Jurgen Klopp said: “First of all, obviously he is very excited! I saw on social media he had his own shirt presentation in five different venues in Paris! Great. He is a good guy, I knew that before. Physically, because of the situation, we met now [for] the first time here – apart from the games when we played Leipzig, obviously. He is a good guy, he is really happy to be here. I’m really happy to have him around. He is a young boy still, unbelievably young, but experienced already. [He] played some really good stuff in the past and hopefully even better stuff in the future. But for him it’s now the first pre-season with us as well, we don’t know a lot about the player, that’s always how it is with new players. So we try to be careful as well, try to be in constant conversations with him about how he feels and these kinds of things. It’s a completely normal process and yeah, [it’s] really good to have him here.”
