Liverpool Issue ‘Hands Off’ Warning, Midfielder Will Not Be Sold
Jan 5, 2017 at 12:24 AM
Liverpool have sent out a strong warning to the interested clubs that promising midfielder Kevin Stewart is not for sale.
The 23-year-old squad player had been linked with a number of clubs in the past few weeks, but according to James Pearce of the Liverpool Echo, all offers will be rejected.
In fact, the report alleges that a number of Premier League and Championship clubs, including Swansea, West Brom, Aston Villa and Newcastle, had already made offers for the midfielder only to have them quickly rebuffed.
Since making his Liverpool debut under Klopp a year ago, Stewart has been ustilised by the German mainly as an impact sub to close out tight games and preserve wins.
Indeed, he has played barely 20 minutes of Premier League football this season (with his latest coming as a late sub appearance against Chelsea back in September), but his professionalism is apparently something that has endeared him to the manager greatly. That same sense of dedication is what led to Stewart being handed a five-year contract less than two months ago (his second contract extension in less than a year).
With Lucas Leiva’s future very much still up in the air, Klopp will not want to lose another player from what is already a relatively light squad, so in that regard alone, any move for Stewart is likely to be a non-runner.
The report goes on to claim that Liverpool value the player at somewhere between £10-12m, and while he will definitely not be sold this month, the situation could be different in the summer, possibly depending on European qualification etc.
In the immediate future, the former Tottenham man is almost certain to start in next weekend’s FA Cup third round tie against Plymouth at Anfield, in what will probably be a heavily rotated squad with an EFL Cup semi-final first leg and a Premier League trip to Old Trafford to follow in the days after.