Liverpool’s midfield has necessarily been revamped over the past 12 months, with the old guard giving way to a generation of younger players.
Under then manager Jurgen Klopp, the Reds were active in the summer 2023 move window and landed players in the center of the park.
Naby Keita is one of them, and the Guinean follows Jordan Henderson, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, James Milner and Fabinho at Anfield.
Liverpool responded by signing Alexis Mac Allister, Ryan Gravenberch, Dominik Szoboszlai and Wataru Endo, and the quartet breathed new life into the club by finishing third in the Premier League last season.
While the other four midfielders who left Liverpool last summer enjoyed varying degrees of good luck at their new club, things went awry for Keita.
Although he was strong and showed flashes of brilliance, a mix of injuries and inconsistency meant the Anfield faithful never got to see the most productive of him when he joined Werder Bremen for a relaxed move last summer.
Now it turns out that things are going from bad to worse for the Guinean midfielder.
Werder Bremen showed in a statement that the decision had been made for Keita, who Klopp [The Independent] once described as “brilliant”, to exercise away from the rest of his team after discussions with the player and his agent, who showed that The 29-year-old will now seek a transfer.
Speaking about the situation, Werder Bremen’s general director of football Clemens Fritz said it is “the most practical decision” for all parties involved and explained the main points of their “honest verbal exchange” with Keita and his entourage.
Fritz told Werder Bremen’s official website: “On the one hand, we have to fully dedicate ourselves to the rest of the preparation and the start of the season. On the other hand, Naby had also been thinking about it for a while.
“As his sporting scenario has not yet changed, he would like to look for a new challenge. With his advice, we need this as temporarily as possible.
Keita’s relationship with the club began to deteriorate at the end of last season when he refused to be part of the squad of the day for the Bundesliga clash against Bayer Leverkusen in April.
The Bundesliga club responded by deferring Keita from the team for the rest of the season and sanctioning him “substantially. ”
Bremen later also revealed in a statement that Keita had been sanctioned for not showing up and that the midfielder had not played for the club since.
To say the least, Keita’s career in the most sensible sense is unfortunately reaching an unfortunate climax at first glance. The midfielder only played 129 times for Liverpool in five seasons at the club, and the Reds rightly chose not to offer him a new contract.
Werder Bremen pursued him by offering him a flexible transfer, but Keita’s heartbreak continued when he returned to Germany, as he made just five appearances for the club last season before making history and being suspended.
The 29-year-old will now look for a new club, although potential suitors may be put off by his injury history and habit in recent years.