James Pearce confirms Anfield Central exclusive on €40million Liverpool deal

As Anfield Central revealed, Ibrahima Konate will not join Liverpool until the Premier League season has been concluded and the Athletic's James Pearce has corroborated this while speaking on the Red Agenda Podcast.

We were told at the start of May that with personal terms already agreed on with Konate and an agreement in place between Liverpool and RB Leipzig over the fee required to sign him, a deal is a matter of time.

Liverpool will not pay the release clause until a medical is passed and that will not take place until both the Premier League and Bundesliga seasons are over due to COVID-19 travel restrictions.

James Pearce now corroborates this, saying on the Red Agenda Podcast: "We expect Ibrahima Konate to come in. We know discussions have gone on with the player's representatives, but as of yet Liverpool haven't triggered his release clause.

"I wouldn't expect that to happen until the end of the season."

This season has been all about getting back to full fitness for Konate after a lengthy spell on the sidelines.

He suffered torn muscle fibre which saw him initially miss 225 days but a couple setbacks sidelined him for another 110 days.

Liverpool aren't concerned about his injury history although they will wait for the results of his medical to pass judgement on whether or not he is worth a €40million investment this summer.

As we reported on Tuesday, Konate will arrive at Anfield to start alongside Virgil van Dijk as the club is concerned about Joe Gomez after his patellar tendon tear which ruled him out for the entire 2020/21 season.

It's not that Liverpool don't believe the Englishman can overcome his injury struggles. It's the opposite - they don't want to pressure him into returning to action straight away so that he has the time and space to slowly increase the workload his knee will need to accommodate.

We were told by Dr. Rajpal Brar:"The patellar tendon is an active mover and takes on significantly more load than the ACL (which is a “passive constraint”, it’s not contracting rather just passively stretching to control knee joint stability).

"It’s a really strong tendon that’s important to basic knee movements so that’s why it’s a tough injury to deal with."

The fact that the patellar tendon is actively dealing with more stress than the ACL, for example, is why it's of such great concern for Liverpool.

Gomez is still one of the most exciting defenders in the world and the club is actively making sure he is given the best possible chance to reach his incredibly high ceiling.