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Liverpool may enter into the summer surrounded by uncertainty. First and foremost there is uncertainty about the future of manager Brendan Rodgers, who looked as though he lost the players following a pair of difficult defeats to Manchester United and Arsenal. Then there’s Raheem Sterling, the young star insisting he will move on this summer and whose agent has become an embarrassment.
Yet there has been some good, stabilising news, too. News of a new long-term deal for promising young attacker Jordon Ibe and an extension for local defender Jon Flanagan in the hopes he can put a difficult, injury-plagued season behind him after a promising 2013-14. Now, 34-year-old centre half Kolo Toure has dropped the strongest hint yet that he intends to stick around for at least one more season with the Reds.
"I think the situation will be resolved soon," said the veteran defender. "We are talking. Liverpool is a great club for me to stay at, and they are going to be massive. I love Premier League football and I played all my years here and if I can finish here it would be great. My kids go to school here and are half-English and that is important as well. I am very happy here and if it was to carry on, I'd be more than happy."
Toure’s current deal runs down at the end of June, and it appears as though the defender has decided he would rather stay at the club as fourth-choice centre half than head abroad for the first time in his career in search of starter’s minutes. If that’s a role Toure is content to fill, it should be a positive heading into a likely turbulent offseason for Liverpool.
Some might have assumed an on-loan youngster like Andre Wisdom or Tiago Ilori would be arriving as next season’s fourth choice, but at their age more minutes are needed than most fourth-choice players are going to get if they are to continue their development. If neither are quite ready to become third choice for a side hoping to challenge for the top four, the reality is that it’s probably best they head back out on loan.
"It’s not a great finish to the season and it is difficult to find words at the end of that," added Toure. "There are no words. We were expecting a better result, for Liverpool Football Club and Stevie as well. We wanted to do better for him. Why it finished like that we don't know. The talent is there."
