Fabrizio Romano says £20m Liverpool player still wants to stay at Anfield despite Barcelona links

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Liverpool look set to stave of interest from Barcelona during the January transfer window.

Barca have been linked with a move for Reds midfielder Thiago Alcantara as they look to plug the hole left by a serious injury to former Liverpool target Gavi.

But according to journalist Fabrizio Romano in his Daily Briefing today, nothing is imminent between Barcelona and Thiago. In fact, Romano claims that just as he did amid interest from Saudi Arabia in the summer, the Spaniard still wants to stay at Anfield.

“I’ve had some fans asking me about stories involving Thiago Alcantara and a surprise potential return to Barcelona this January,” began the transfer expert. “Of course we know that Barca are now short in midfield after the lengthy injury to Gavi, but it’s too early to know if they’re going to replace him, or who they could target.

“With Thiago, I’m not aware of concrete talks with Barca so far. As I previously reported, Barca’s priority is to register Vitor Roque before deciding on the midfielder situation. For now there are no changes, and no concrete developments on how to act with replacing Gavi.

“It’s also worth remembering that Thiago said no to Saudi clubs in July as he wanted to stay at Liverpool. As far as I’m aware there has been no change to his situation since then.”

Thiago still committed to Liverpool

What a sad story Thiago’s season has been so far. As we approach December, it’s now over seven months since we last saw him in a Liverpool shirt.

Even then, it was only for a couple of cameos. The former Bayern Munich man’s last start for the Reds came way back on February 4th.

Having subsequently undergone surgery in the summer, it was hoped that Thiago could play a big part for Liverpool this season.

But over three months into the new campaign, the 32-year-old is yet to play a single minute.

Of course, there’s still plenty of time for that to change. Jurgen Klopp has previously mentioned the New Year as a potential return date for Thiago and if that does turn out to be the case then he can still be influential.

In a dream scenario, the Spain international returns mid-season to aid Liverpool’s push for silverware. You can just see him flourishing in the Reds’ midfield alongside Alexis Mac Allister, Dominik Szoboszlai and Ryan Gravenberch.

Conversely, it would be a real shame to see him jump ship to Barcelona as soon as he’s nearing fitness again. From a Liverpool point of view, it would make no sense at all to sell Thiago in January.

It would be perhaps be a bonus to get his reported £200k-a-week wages [Spotrac] off the books six months early, but whatever minimal transfer fee they could get for him wouldn’t be worth losing his nous, experience and quality for the last stretch of his Liverpool career. For now, it’s great to hear that Thiago is still committed and we can’t wait to finally see him in red again.