Liverpool to Open Negotiations over Simon Mignolet’s Contract Extension

It seems that Liverpool have opened negotiations over the extension of Simon Mignolet’s contract beyond 2018. The discussions with the goalkeeper concerning his eventual new contract come here to prove the confidence of Jurgen Klopp in the player.

The club’s head coach himself denied rumours that he has been looking for a new goalkeeper. Right before the Capital One Cup quarter-final on Wednesday, Klopp shared that Liverpool are not in the market for a goalkeeper. He also declined the speculations that associated Liverpool with Jack Butland from Stoke City, Germany Under-21 Timo Hord and Guillaume Hubert from Belgium Under-21 team, saying that he is “absolutely satisfied with the goalkeeping situation.”

Klopp also praised Simon Mignolet, calling him “one of the smartest” who have ever played under his lead. 27-year-old Mignolet signed his 5-year contract with Liverpool after moving from Sunderland in June 2013. The transfer was estimated to £9 million, meaning the goalkeeper currently earns around £60,000 on a weekly basis. This salary, however, would increase in case an agreement for further contract extension between him and the club is reached.

The Belgian has been having a strained relationship with the club after he arrived from Sunderland two years ago. The performances of Mignolet at the pitch have been closely observed at times over his play for two-and-a-half seasons. The former manager of the team – Brendan Rodgers, who was succeeded by Jurgen Klopp, even dropped the goalkeeper for a while in December 2014 over concerns that his form had deteriorated badly.

The rumours that Klopp may be looking for a replacement of Mignolet have been also fuelled by Liverpool’s former goalkeeper Bruce Grobbelaar. The latter has been one of the biggest critics of Mignolet. Last week, he claimed that current manager of the team was considering a replacement from the German league.

The words of Grobbelaar might have been provoked by another episode with Mignolet, who was penalised for time wasting after holding onto the ball for 22 seconds in the Europa League game against Swansea on Sunday.

As already mentioned above, Klopp hurried to put an end to these speculations, revealing he had no such plans because he was quite satisfied with the performance of Mignolet and his back-up Adam Bogdan as senior goalkeepers. The 28-year-old Adam Bogdan, on the other hand, has been also rumoured to be considering an eventual transfer to Southampton.