Konate promises fans they don't know full story about Liverpool contract talks

Ibrahima Konate's contract at Liverpool continues to wind down but the defender claims some of the media talk surrounding his future is wide of the mark - which isn't sitting well with the fanbase

Liverpool's Ibrahima Konate claims the noise surrounding his future is "putting him in a tight spot" with the Liverpool supporters who "don’t even know all the ins and outs.”

The Frenchman is into the final year of his contract at Anfield and whilst there is talk of him signing an extension there has also been whispers of him heading to Real Madrid - which would be the same path walked by Trent Alexander-Arnold back in the summer.

Losing another first-team star for free would be a frustration for the Reds with Konate currently Virgil van Dijk's preferred partner at the heart of defence. He was signed from RB Leipzig in 2021 and has been a regular on Merseyside since then.

Last term Liverpool had to get on with their season whilst noise persisted over the futures of Alexander-Arnold, Mohamed Salah and Virgil van Dijk - the latter pair eventually signing new deals.

Now attention is fixed on Konate and the 26-year-old insists that some of the media reports regarding his next move are wide of the mark, which is ultimately have a knock on affect.

Speaking to TF1 before France's win over Azerbaijan, which saw Les Blues concede early on before battling back to claim victory, the Liverpool star said: “It’s difficult, we can’t say everything because a lot of things are already being said in the media.“

The defender also claimed that the reports that have filtered out won't have sat well with the Liverpool faithful - who ultimately don't know the whole story. “Some of the things that I read, I’m like… oh la la," he said. "That puts me in a tight spot with Liverpool fans, and they don’t even know all the ins and outs.”

Real have been experts at making use of the free agent market. Just over a year ago and they landed Kylian Mbappe for nothing when he let his PSG contract wind down. Their pursuit of Alexander-Arnold was well publicised and before that they signed Antonio Rudiger when his Chelsea deal expired.

Liverpool had gone after Marc Guehi in the summer and were chasing the Crystal Palace ace up until the final hours of deadline day. He is out of contract next summer and the Eagles ultimately backed out of negotiations to sell him. The Reds had signed Giovanni Leoni from Parma, but he picked up an early injury which has ruled him out for the season.