John Barnes has insinuated that his old club will have a decision to make with regard to Naby Keita’s future at Anfield.
The Guinean’s form once more been called into question following a poor display in Liverpool’s 3-1 defeat in the first-leg of their Champions League quarter-final clash with Real Madrid.
“I don’t know what his future holds at Liverpool because I’m not privy to discussions and how they feel about certain a player, but I do think that it’s fair to say that he’s been inconsistent,” the former Liverpool midfielder told Goal.
“I know he’s a good player but things haven’t really worked out. It’s important to say that this happens a lot for lots of different players – you can look at [Xherdan] Shaqiri, you can look at [Divock] Origi, you can look at a lot of players who’s been in the same situation.
“This is just the nature of modern football. Whereby players may cost a lot of money and have big reputations but yet, things don’t work out.
“So yes, it hasn’t worked out for him and it’ll be interesting to see what Liverpool decides to do.”
‘Inconsistent’ is quite probably a fair description, with a constant stream of injuries blighting the 26-year-old’s Liverpool career.
There have been clear indications of the former Bundesliga star’s talents, of course, with his involvement in the 7-0 hammering of Crystal Palace last year standing out as an example, and likewise, there have been dire outings.
It seems to be a constant case of deja vu as we approach the season end – do we cut our losses and sell the midfielder on? Or do we acknowledge that injuries have hampered what may have been a brilliant season?
With the player’s contract expiring in the summer of 2023, the club has a serious amount of thinking to do over Keita’s future, should we wish to recoup some semblance of the fee dished out to RB Leipzig three years ago.
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