Disappointment at Can contract impasse as Liverpool face up to exit
Jamie Redknapp says there's positives for Liverpool but Jurgen Klopp is being undermined by his defence.
Emre Can's already uncertain future was clouded further this week when the Liverpool midfielder claimed "it was an honour" to receive an offer from Juventus last summer, while also refusing to rule out the possibility that he could be playing for Bayern Munich next season.
The 23-year-old will be out of contract at the end of the season and his public flirtations with other clubs suggest he has at least one eye on the Anfield exit. Perhaps it's still possible a deal could be struck with the Reds but with seemingly no progress having been made in recent months it appears that Can intends to allow his contract to run down and leave as a free agent.
Despite doubts over the future there has been no questioning the midfielder's commitment to the present, which is presumably why Jurgen Klopp has been happy to keep selecting him despite the contract impasse. To his credit, Can has frequently shown an admirable willingness to get out there and play even when he's been struggling with injury.
Liverpool could -- some might even say should -- have cashed in on the former Bayer Leverkusen man last summer, and the decision not to will be a costly one if the player walks away for nothing.
Presumably, then, Liverpool would still like to get him tied down to a new deal -- if for no other reason than to protect his value. But talks have been ongoing for almost a year and little headway has been made. With each week that passes, Can moves ever closer to becoming a free agent, and in January he will be able to agree a pre-contract with any club outside of England.
If that happens, Liverpool will inevitably be criticised for allowing a multi-million pound asset to walk away for nothing, but other than cashing in on the player against Klopp's wishes last summer it's difficult to see how the club could have handled this much differently. They couldn't force the player to sign a new contract on their terms, but nor could they simply give in to all of his demands either. Sometimes there is no common ground and neither side is to blame.
The initial sticking point was money. Can had not played well enough to justify the salary he was reportedly asking for at that time, but during the second half of last season he was arguably Liverpool's most consistent performer and the demands that had initially seemed excessive suddenly looked reasonable, particularly when the much-maligned Dejan Lovren was signed to a new £100,000-a-week deal.
Emre Can excelled towards the end of last season, helping Liverpool towards a spot in the top four.
It then emerged that the standoff was no longer about money and that Can wanted a release clause inserted into any new agreement, but having been powerless to prevent Luis Suarez joining Barcelona (for a £75 million fee that now looks like daylight robbery by the Catalan giants), Liverpool are looking to move away from such arrangements.
It's a policy that has already paid off for them. In January they tied Philippe Coutinho down to a new deal with no release clause and were therefore able to rebuff Barcelona's interest in the Brazilian this summer.
Had an escape clause been present, Coutinho would have gone the way of Suarez, joining Barcelona for a fee that would quickly seem like a relative pittance. The Brazilian's market value when he signed that extension in January would have been around £65m or so, but six months later Liverpool were turning down an offer that was almost double that amount.
So with the huge increase in player value in the last six months alone, Liverpool should not make an exception for Can, especially when they'll soon be looking to sit down to extend Roberto Firmino and Sadio Mane.
It's easy to sympathise with Can's position too. He does not appear to have been particularly unreasonable, which may explain why his relationship with Klopp has remained strong. Having witnessed what happened to Coutinho over the summer it is understandable that Can might have been reluctant to commit himself to Liverpool amid interest from other top clubs, particularly as his place in the team is far from assured.
The young German probably does not make Liverpool's best XI when Klopp has his full squad available, but such luxury is rare for the Reds' boss so more often than not Can finds his way on to the teamsheet. However, competition is set to increase with the return to fitness of Adam Lallana, while of course next summer will see the arrival of the exciting Naby Keita.
Coutinho's future is obviously still in doubt but irrespective of that, where does Can fit into next season's starting lineup? This is surely a factor in his reluctance to commit.
With Juventus retaining a strong interest in him, Can might fancy a fresh start and may feel there is little to be gained from extending his stay on Merseyside, especially if he is going to find himself on the fringes of the team.
The frustration for Liverpool is that this is a relatively young player who is about to come into the prime years of his career. They have invested time and patience in his development and it would stick in the throat to see another club reap the benefits of that, but there seems to be very little they could have done to avoid this particular situation.
Dave Usher is one of ESPN's Liverpool bloggers and the founder of LFC fanzine and website The Liverpool Way. Follow him on Twitter: @theliverpoolway.
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Source: espn.co.uk
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