27 Oct 2016

I Want Out: 'Spectacular' £20m Liverpool star desperate to escape Klopp and quit Anfield in January

Liverpool outcast Mamadou Sakho is reportedly ready to quit Anfield during the January transfer window.

According to The Mirror:

"Mamadou Sakho is finally ready to leave Liverpool after accepting he has no future at Anfield under Jurgen Klopp. Sakho knows he must leave in January to resurrect his career.

This has been obvious for months, and I doubt Jurgen Klopp will stand in £20m-rated Sakho's way if he wants to leave in January.

How the mighty have fallen. Last season, Klopp hailed Sakho as an 'absolutely spectacular' player, but the French defender is now playing his trade for the club's U23 team.

Last week, U23s boss Michael Beale appeared to suggest that Sakho was close to a return to the first team squad:

“Mama is working hard every day. That’s the closest he’s looked to full fitness. A couple more games like that and we’ll see what happens from there.”

Sakho isn't the most graceful player, and he's made a few errors of judgement, but Klopp's treatment of the defender is arguably bordering on the disrespectful. Why force him to train with the U23s? Sakho made his mistakes, and paid the price, but continually marginalising him smacks of vindictiveness.

Klopp's handling of Sakho is no different to Man United's much-criticised treatment of Bastien Schweinsteiger, or the German's own disrespectful handling of Mario Balotelli. In the aftermath of his transfer to Nice, Balotelli's Agent, Mino Raiola scathed:

"He [Balotelli] was a player of Liverpool and you need to treat him with respect. Klopp didn’t do that. He didn't understand that Balotelli is, whatever else, a person".

The last line is key here. Sakho has made mistakes, but he is also a 'person' who deserves to be treated with respect, and once again, Klopp is not doing that. It's also important to note that Raiola also claimed:

"In the end, the higher-ups at Liverpool admitted that Klopp was wrong [to send Balotelli to train with the reserves]".

If Raiola is right (and there's no reason he'd lie in public, especially about something that could be easily refuted), then it appears that FSG took a dim view of Klopp's treatment of Balotelli, and I'm sure they'll feel the same about his marginalisation of Sakho.

After all, banishing a high profile player to the youth team, and basically creating a 'problem player' narrative is not going to help maintain Sakho's transfer value. Loss of value = loss of money for FSG.

Liverpool have £20m invested in Sakho, and he's reportedly on £100k-a-week, so the club is basically hemorrhaging money whilst indulging Klopp's obvious grudge.

In my view, Klopp needs to get over it and bring Sakho back into the first team squad. Let him fight for his place in a meritocracy, and if he's not good enough, then so be it.


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