Conor Bradley is reportedly close to agreeing a contract extension with Liverpool Football Club.
Graeme Bailey has told TBR that talks have moved forward over a five-year deal that will see the Northern Irishman’s wages boosted.
Despite this, the club is understood to have informed the fullback that they still intend to sign a new right-back this summer.
Liverpool have faith in Conor Bradley
It remains to be seen whether or not Arne Slot and his coaching staff deem Bradley to be the future of the right-back position after Trent Alexander-Arnold leaves for Real Madrid.
What is evident, however, is that Liverpool do rate the 21-year-old highly – and rightly so after some seriously impressive performances this season against quality opposition, as Jamie Carragher rightly noted.
“When Liverpool have had Conor Bradley in the team this season, he’s looked the real deal, and I don’t think the right-back market this summer is alive with lots of amazing right-backs,” the former Red told Sky Sports.
“So I think the way for Liverpool to go if Trent moves on is for Conor Bradley to be given his head, but also for Liverpool to buy maybe a utility player who can play across the back-four, maybe like what Joe Gomez has been in the last few years.”
A shutout outing against Kylian Mbappe and Real Madrid in the league stage of the Champions League this term, for one, certainly shouldn’t be forgotten.
A new contract, then, would represent a huge show of faith in the defender’s abilities going into the next campaign.
That all said, we’d still like to see the footballer build up a bit more resiliency in the years to come if he’s to be our first-choice right-back.
Missing 16 games a season (the number of fixtures Conor Bradley has missed through injury in 2024/25) can’t become a frequent occurrence.
A new right-back won’t be a priority
It’s our understanding that Liverpool would be open to signing a new right-back this summer (at the very least to compete with Alexander-Arnold’s understudy).
However, as Arne Slot’s reported talks with Jeremie Frimpong have proven, we have other clear priorities that are in greater need of addressing.
There still remains a possibility that Virgil van Dijk and Mo Salah will walk out of the door when their terms expire in June, which leaves us with a gigantic potential quality deficit in two departments.
You could forgive Richard Hughes and his recruitment team for wanting to focus all their efforts on replacing a guaranteed 20-plus goals a season forward in our No.11 and arguably the world’s leading centre-half.
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