Jurgen Klopp has reiterated his hope of keeping Roberto Firmino at Liverpool beyond this season but admits the Brazil forward may have other plans. Firmino, who turns 32 in October, has seen Liverpool’s frontline undergo a major renovation over the last 12 months following the signings of Luis Diaz, Darwin Nunez and Cody Gakpo in the same timeframe that Sadio Mane was sold to Bayern Munich and Mohamed Salah signed a new, long-term contract. And asked what might be the hold up on confirmation of an extension for Firmino,
Jurgen Klopp said: “They are normal things. What could be the reason from our point of view? There is no reason to give too detailed information but when you think a bit, where could it hang? It could be the time, it could be the money or these kinds of things, but it is completely normal. Bobby knows the situation here and what we think of him, that’s clear. And there is nothing else to say, there is no problem or whatever, it is just the situation. I can’t see any kind of problems there. He was [so important], he is. I think in the first part of the season we were not flying but Bobby was the only one who played a pretty good season. He was probably the only one who played a kind of normal season in a lot of games, at least.”
Klopp admitted he didn’t know what his player’s plans are going forward and hinted that there might be contract offers already on the table for an attacker who has turned out 348 times for Liverpool since moving in the summer of 2015.
Jurgen Klopp added: “So he is really important, the link-up play, in tight areas and how we want to play. Maybe he wouldn’t fit right with all the clubs in the world but to most definitely because having a player with his footballing intelligence, you can develop the game from here and score on top of that. He is so unselfish on top of that and you don’t get that very often. He is a great player. I don’t know 100% what his plans are, maybe someone else will offer him something better, I don’t know, that can all happen, but I say ‘yes’ [I want him to stay] and everything is like it should be at this moment in time. At the moment it is pretty early [in the month] and the transfer window is not even closed, so we will see.”
