Danny Murphy has admitted that he’s worried about the prospect of Gini Wijnaldum leaving Liverpool in January.
The Netherlands international was heavily linked with a move to Barcelona during the summer transfer window, but wound up staying on Merseyside.
But there wasn’t a contract extension signed, meaning that the Liverpool midfielder is still set to leave on a free transfer next summer if no new deal is agreed between now and then.
Those Camp Nou rumours are bound to flare up again in January if there’s no change for Wijnaldum, who played under Barcelona boss Ronald Koeman at international level.
And Murphy has revealed he is simultaneously concerned and surprised that Liverpool have allowed him to enter into the final year of his deal without a new one being signed, adding that he could potentially see him leaving midway through the campaign.
He told Football Index podcast on YouTube: “I like Wijnaldum a lot. He’s quietly gone under the radar and made that position his own. I am surprised he’s down to his last year of his contract if I’m honest.
“That’s not normally how Liverpool do business. That worries me a little bit in that maybe he’s looking for another challenge. That looks like it might happen at the end of the season in January.”
This is a big player for Liverpool, who have played 42 Premier League games since August of 2019 and Wijnaldum has played in 41 of them.
And although he would be a major miss, Thiago Alcantara is at Anfield now.
Thiago, like Wijnaldum, is a midfielder and it seems very possible that the Spain international may already be the former Newcastle player’s replacement.
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