When Pep Lijnders was offered the chance to leave Liverpool and establish himself as a manager in his own right away from Anfield, Red Bull Salzburg made the call believing that this was a man with a lot to offer in the dugout.
Of course, the coaching talents Lijnders developed alongside Jurgen Klopp on Merseyside was the main reason why the Austrian giants came calling.
But the Liverpool connections Lijnders brought with him to the Red Bull Arena would likely have seen as another massive plus in the Salzburg boardroom.
Those Liverpool connections have already come in handy.
Salzburg secured a £10 million deal to sign Bobby Clark this month. The teenage midfielder made his first-team breakthrough under Klopp last term but now heads to Austria in pursuit of more regular minutes.
Clark could be joined, meanwhile, by another 19-year-old schemer.
Stefan Bajcetic is expected to leave Liverpool on loan in an attempt to build up his fitness again after an injury-ruined 2023/24 campaign.
Liverpool to send Stefan Bajcetic to Red Bull Salzburg
HITC understands that Barcelona have made an enquiry – alongside La Liga rivals Real Sociedad and Bajcetic’s hometown club Celta Vigo – but Liverpool want to make sure he joins a club where minutes on the pitch would be all-but guaranteed.
Salzburg, Liverpool feel, may be the ideal destination for a player who already knows Lijnders well.
And when asked about the prospect of Bajcetic reuniting with Lijnders and Clark – as well as coaches Vitor Matos and Andreas Kornmayer – Red Bull Salzburg’s sporting director Bernhard Seonbuchner could not resist offering the odd hint.
“I can say that he hasn’t signed with us yet,” Seonbuchner told Sky Austria and Laola 1.
When pressed further on whether Bajcetic would join, he grinned and responded with a coy ‘maybe’.
“(We are) not looking at Liverpool players but at good players. You have to see what happens in the last few days until the transfer deadline,” the director adds. “Things can quickly go in all directions, so it really wouldn’t be right to give an assessment.
“What you can say is that we are working, that we are hard-working. We are trying to put together a reasonable team.
“A loan is never taboo, but it always has to be a good fit, and the right circumstances are needed. It’s just important that the right mix is there and that the club’s idea is maintained. And there’s no doubt about that.”
Barcelona keen to take teenager back to La Liga
HITC have been told that Barcelona want Bajcetic – who dazzled during a breakout 2022/23 season before the injury struck – after losing fellow teenager Marc Bernal to an anterior cruciate ligament rupture.
Barca would be happy to pay a loan fee for the Spain youth star, while also foregoing an option or obligation-to-buy clause in Bajcetic’s contract.
The 2020 signing from Celta Vigo is expected to put pen to paper with Salzburg instead, however, Fabrizio Romano uttering the three words that every Red Bull Arena matchgoer wanted to hear on Thursday morning.
Stefan Bajcetic to Salzburg; ‘here we go’.
Ahead of Liverpool’s 2-0 win over Brentford on Sunday – Arne Slot’s first home game in charge – Klopp’s replacement opened up on the difficulty of letting young players like Clark go.
Bajcetic, meanwhile, may have fallen behind fellow wonderkid Trey Nyoni after the ‘fearless’ 17-year-old sparkled in pre-season.
“(Selling youngsters like Clark) is always a difficult one, as young players want to play. If they want to develop then they have to play. It’s always like this,” Slot told the Liverpool Echo.
“They come through the ranks of the youth Academy, and either you are good enough to play for many minutes or there is too much competition in your position.
“This team, we still have a lot of homegrown players. And, one of them, (Nyoni) training with us on a daily basis who is only 17.”
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