Gab Marcotti has expressed his surprise at Naby Keita deciding to join German side Werder Bremen ahead of his summer exit from Liverpool.
The 28-year-old’s contract at Liverpool will expire this month and, alongside Roberto Firmino, James Milner and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, he will head for the exit door.
Whilst James Milner has decided to join Brighton and Hove Albion, for Naby Keita, he will don the colours of Werder Bremen and European football expert Marcotti thinks he could have ‘waited’ for a much better offer, as he told ESPN.
When you are being let go by a club when you are supposed to be at the peak of your powers, then that tells you everything about where you are.
This isn’t a Liverpool side that has just won the Premier League title or the Champions League, but a team that finished in a Europa League place.
Things just haven’t worked out for Keita on Merseyside, so from that perspective, not extending his stay isn’t a surprise, but for Marcotti, the choice of his next club is.
“He is signing for Werder Bremen, which I thought was weird,” said Marcotti. “He’s going to make a lot less money than he made at Liverpool.
“There are two ways to look at this. I would have thought, okay you have had a really poor stint at Liverpool, but you are still Naby Keita.
“It seems weird to me that the first offer that comes along…if Liverpool is a top ten team in Europe, then Werder Bremen are 50-60 in Europe, maybe even lower.
“I think you could have waited and say ‘hey, wait for a team between 20-30 or 30-40 in Europe’. I don’t have a problem with a guy that says he is going to prove his worth several tiers down from where he was before and Werder Bremen used to be a really, really big club. Maybe he can get them back.”
Keita’s struggles at Liverpool
It was a very competitive environment at Liverpool and Jurgen Klopp demanded a lot from his players, especially those in the middle of the park.
Keita just couldn’t keep that engine running to the standards that Klopp wanted, both because of quality, but also his inability to stay out of the treatment room.
If he can remain injury-free at Bremen, then there is no reason why he can’t climb back to being a top, top midfielder again.
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