‘Very soon’: Romano says 23-year-old Liverpool target is about to get the deal that he ‘always wanted’

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Fabrizio Romano expects Liverpool to lose out on Ronald Araujo as a deal with Barcelona nears. The Uruguayan was supposedly a Reds target.

Journalist Fabrizio Romano explained on Tuesday evening that Ronald Araujo will almost certainly agree to a new contract with Barcelona. The player’s current deal expires in 2023 and there were genuine concerns that he’d leave this summer for a cut-price fee.

However, it appears the two parties have an understanding. Romano says that Araujo will remain with Barcelona as he ‘always wanted’

“Ronald Araújo will sign his new contract with Barcelona very soon as today talks were more than positive,” he wrote on Twitter. “In the final meeting only length of the contract will be discussed – it’s likely gonna be until June 2026.

“No doubt, Araújo’s gonna stay as he always wanted.”

Liverpool to lose out on Ronald Araujo

This would bring a questionable transfer ‘saga’ to an end, then. Reports linked Liverpool with Araujo for some time, with ESPN claiming there was an offer within the last two weeks.

But it’s not one that ever made a massive amount of sense. Liverpool have four elite centre-backs, after all, and would surely need to sell one of them before signing Araujo.

Now, that wasn’t impossible – Joe Gomez isn’t exactly getting many opportunities this summer – but centre-back always felt like a strange place to recruit right now. Especially as Araujo would command large wages if he were to leave Barcelona.

There were positives, of course. Araujo is a very talented young defender and there’s an obvious long-term partnership with Ibrahima Konate. But would that be worth the wages right now? Could Liverpool even offer the South American regular football over the next year or two?

Those were always difficult questions to answer.

With Araujo remaining in Catalonia, we’ll see if Liverpool go after a different centre-back. We’d be quite surprised if they did – Araujo was a fairly unique chance with his expiring contract. Instead, we expect focus to turn to other areas of the team.