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Despite a talented crop of youngsters, outside Trent Alexander-Arnold, Joe Gomez, and Dominic Solanke there has been little first team involvement for Liverpool’s youth players this season as improved squad depth and an early ouster from the League Cup have combined to make minutes hard to come by.
Even an impressive pre-season and handful of Wales caps hasn’t been enough to get 18-year-old Ben Woodburn into the mix this season, and Ovie Ejaria and Harry Wilson have both found themselves restricted to the U23s following injuries last season that set them back. Now, that could be leading to problems.
Liverpool have been trying to sign Ejaria and Wilson to new deals for a few months now but so far both players have resisted putting pen to paper, and with both 20 year olds eager to head out on loan this month in search of playing time the club have made new deals a condition for allowing them to head out.
According to The Liverpool Echo, the club don’t want to send the duo out until they extend their contracts, and while Woodburn is currently waiting to see if the club bring in a Philippe Coutinho replacement before he’s sent out on loan, it’s a contract impasse currently blocking departures for Ejaria and Wilson.
It’s clear, then, that both players remain in Jürgen Klopp’s long-term plans—but it’s easy, too, to understand why they might look at the current depth chart and wonder if there’s room for them to break through at Anfield. Hopefully, for the good of the club, they can be convinced that there is and will re-sign.