You can forget the notion that free-agents cost nothing. Just ask Juventus.
Ok, the Serie A giants did not pay Arsenal a penny when luring Aaron Ramsey to Turin three years ago. But they did offer the Welsh international a staggering annual salary of around £6 million, forking out around £7,000 for every single minute Ramsey spent on the pitch during his ill-fated spell in black-and-white (Gazzetta dello Sport).
And that’s without mentioning a reported signing-on fee of £8 million. Suddenly, when you factor in all the added costs, this supposed ‘bargain’ signing is starting to feel rather expensive.
So with 90Min reporting that Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur are considering offers for Liverpool’s Naby Keita – the Guinean midfielder increasingly unlikely to extend a contract that expires in July 2023 – the situation Juventus found themselves in with Ramsey should act as a cautionary tale.
Will Arsenal or Tottenham really sign Liverpool’s Naby Keita?
Keita, per Spotrac, earns £120,000-a-week at Anfield. The 27-year-old former RB Leipzig dynamo is likely to command sizeable wages at his next club too; his bargaining position strengthened by the absence of a transfer fee. That’s without mentioning a potential signing-on fee too, plus any commission that may have to be paid to his representatives.
Suddenly, presuming Arsenal or Spurs would have to offer Keita a three-year deal at the minimum, you’re looking at quite an exorbitant investment. And there’s a reason why Liverpool are unlikely to put up much of a fight as player who cost them in excess of £50 million as recently as 2018 edges ever closer to free-agency.
Injury-prone and high-earning
Since arriving from the Bundesliga in 2018, Keita has missed no fewer than 79 games through injury and illness (Transfermarkt). A torn muscle here, a groin strain there. An ongoing hamstring problem, meanwhile, has limited him to a grand total of zero minutes so far in 2022/23.
And on the admittedly-rare occasions that Keita has been fit for a sustained period, the Guinean has looked a shadow of the once all-action anarchist-turned-architect who took German football by storm at Leipzig. Barring the odd long-range wondergoal, Keita’s Anfield career has been, to sum it up in one word, underwhelming.
“Keita, for me, isn’t good enough,” Liverpool legend Graeme Souness tells talkSPORT. “I think (the midfield is) a fairly obvious area where (Liverpool) need to strengthen.”
Naby Keita will be a free-agent in 2023. A player of his potential and talent may seem, on paper, like a gamble worth taking. But when you factor in his wages, his injury-record and his disappointing performances in the Premier League, then it starts to feel less like a calculated risk and more a reckless throw of the dice.
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