Rumour Mongering: Simon Mignolet on Verge of Besiktas Move

It seems certain that Simon Mignolet won’t be spending the coming season at Anfield, with the 30-year-old Belgian shot stopper determined to move on in search of playing time after falling behind Loris Karius on the depth chart last year and now the arrival of Alisson.

And according to reports out of Turkey, he will join Besiktas on a season-long loan, with Turkish Football and others this week claiming after Liverpool failed at convincing anyone to outright buy Mignolet, they have resigned themselves to sending the ‘keeper out on loan.

With Mignolet’s contract running through to 2021, if true, there should be little risk in sending him out to start somewhere—especially if Besiktas are willing to pay his wages and an adequate loan fee—and a successful season as a starter should only improve his value.

It would also make more sense for Mignolet to end up at a club like Besiktas where he will be the nailed-on starter than Barcelona, who he was previously rumoured to be considering joining as Marc Andre ter Stegen’s backup, exchanging one bench role for another.

Still, the Turkish press don’t have a great record for transfer rumours involving Liverpool—currently they’re also pushing the Domagoj Vida rumours that every journalist with ties to the club has shot down—so it wouldn’t surprise if this ends up no more than noise.

Mignolet, though, will be sold, and the club would like to do it before he reports back to pre-season training if at all possible, and unlike a player like Divock Origi in the final year of his Liverpool deal a loan could be a plausible place to end up here.