With Napoli winger Khvicha Kvaratskhelia credibly linked with Liverpool on Thursday night, it was the opening question of Arne Slot‘s press conference.
Slot held his pre-Accrington Stanley press conference early on Friday morning, just over 12 hours after the news broke of his side’s interest in Kvaratskhelia.
The Athletic‘s David Ornstein and later the Times‘ Paul Joyce reported that Liverpool will remain attentive to the Georgian’s situation this month with it possible that he leaves Napoli.
Elsewhere on Thursday, Harvey Elliott was touted as a target for Dortmund and Brighton and Federico Chiesa was named as a possible Kvaratskhelia replacement for Napoli.
Asked on those stories, Slot gave the reply most will have expected: “What I make of that is that it’s January.
“I think I said after the West Ham game not to disappoint me, please come up with all these clubs and all these players that have interest from us or the ones that don’t play a lot for us to go somewhere else.
“That is what’s happening now.
“Nine out of 10 times, 99 out of a 100 times, at the end of the window it’s clear that almost all of these stories weren’t true.
“So what can I comment about it? The rumours, keep going for it, but no comments from our side.”
The reports around Kvaratskhelia certainly seem to bear weight, given the reliability of the sources, but Slot’s response should come as no surprise.
Similar to the ongoing contract situations with Trent Alexander-Arnold, Mohamed Salah and Virgil van Dijk, the head coach will opt not to discuss possible transfers with the media.
It is how Liverpool prefer to operate and will clearly remain that way, with any move for Kvaratskhelia – or any other player – to be communicated by the media itself, rather than the powers that be at Liverpool.
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