Premier League giants Liverpool are sending Stefan Bajcetic on loan to Red Bull Salzburg with La Liga trio Celta Vigo, Real Sociedad and Barcelona set to miss out on the Spain starlet.
- Exclusive from Graeme Bailey
There was no shortage of admirers when it became apparent that Liverpool were ready to loan out a player who made such an impression during a fabulous breakout campaign under Jurgen Klopp.
Stefan Bajcetic was a revelation during 2022/23.
Performing like ‘a young Xavi’ the number six role, the teenager played with such a confidence and an authority while highlighting his sublime footwork with a wonderful solo goal against Aston Villa.
But while 2023/24 was supposed to be the year when Bajcetic really established himself as one of the first names on Liverpool’s team sheet, an ill-timed calf injury instead consigned him to nearly a full season on the treatment table.
Bajcetic would play only 234 minutes during Klopp’s farewell campaign.
Liverpool to send Stefan Bajcetic to Red Bull Salzburg
Now, with the likes of James McConnell and the ‘fearless’ Trey Nyoni threatening to make a breakthrough of their own, Liverpool have decided that Bajcetic would be better off spending the current season out on loan in an attempt to build up his fitness and increase his game time.
HITC reported on Wednesday that none other than La Liga giants FC Barcelona had made an enquiry.
Hansi Flicks’ Blaugrana side were happy to pay a loan fee while foregoing the inclusion of an obligation or option-to-buy clause in his contract. Liverpool had reservations about whether the Vigo-born 19-year-old would play regularly enough at the Camp Nou, however.
Despite losing fellow teenager Marc Bernal to a ruptured anterior cruciate ligament, Barcelona still have Pedri while Gavi and Frenkie de Jong should return sooner rather than later following their own lay-offs.
Real Sociedad had also identified Bajcetic as a potential short-term replacement for Mikel Merino. One of Spain’s Euro 2024 champions sealed a £32 million move to Arsenal this week.
Former employers and Bajcetic’s hometown club Celta Vigo made their interest known too.
But HITC has now heard from Liverpool sources that the Spain Under 21 international will spend the remainder of 2024/25 at Red Bull Salzburg in Austria.
Pep Lijnders lands another Anfield reunion after Bobby Clark
Liverpool felt that Salzburg would be the ideal destination and it seems that Bajcetic’s camp feel similarly positive about a reunion with former Anfield assistant Pep Lijnders.
Vitor Matos and Andreas Kornmayer – also formerly members of Klopp’s backroom staff – are at the Red Bull Arena too. Salzburg have snapped up one Liverpool teenager already this summer too, Lijnders calling the £10 million acquisition of Bobby Clark a real ‘statement’ addition.
“The fact that he is coming to us is a proper statement about what we are doing here,” Lijnders tells Vorarlberg Online. “We are happy and honored that a talent from England has chosen Salzburg.
“He could have gone anywhere in England.”
Salzburg sporting director Bernhard Seonbuchner, meanwhile, was intriguingly coy when asked this week if Bajcetic would follow in Clark’s footsteps.
“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 not-so-subtle ‘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.”
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