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Around this time yesterday, Liverpool were celebrating having just secured a place in the Europa League final with a stirring, dominating 3-0 victory over Villarreal at Anfield. Today, they’re lamenting the loss of one of the club’s best young players and probably their best midfield prospect, 19-year-old Liverpool-born Jordan Rossiter.
According to The Liverpool Echo, Rangers have informed Liverpool that they are officially entering into negotiations with Rossiter’s representitives, and with the groundwork believed to have have already been laid, agreeing personal terms is expected to be little more than a formality. Rossiter’s current contract at Liverpool expires at the end of the current season.
The club had been attempting to re-sign the promising youngster, but Rossiter’s wage demands had become a stumbling block. A hamstring injury that has kept him sidelined almost the entirety of Jürgen Klopp’s time at the club hasn’t helped, either. However, the club had believed that the protection of arbitration meant they still had time to come to terms with the player.
They would have, too, had Rossiter sought to move within the FA, either to another Premier League side or to a club lower down the pyramid. Unfortunately for the Reds, moving to Rangers in Scotland means that Liverpool will only be entitled to around £250k in compensation. Given Rossiter is the club’s top midfield prospect, this is rather less than an ideal situation.
It’s also rather surprising, given Rossiter is a local lad who joined the club before his tenth birthday, and that had he stuck around at Liverpool he would almost certainly have seen minutes next season. Maybe not regular minutes, but enough to continue his development. A loan would also have been possible. But either way, he seemed to have a future at his boyhood club.
Not any more. Rossiter impressed in a handful of early appearances for Liverpool this season before being sidelined by a hamstring injury shortly after Klopp signed on to manage the club. He was especially effective in a trio of Europa League appearances against Bordeaux and twice against FC Sion. All told, he has made five senior appearances for Liverpool.