Konate keeping quiet - but Reds need to make sure there's background NOISE

ANFIELD CHIEFS HAVE TO GET BUSY TO AVOID A CONTRACT DRAMA

- By PAUL GORST

NOT for the first time that night, Ibrahima Konate read the danger early.

The Liverpool defender was fresh from beating Aston Villa 2-0 earlier this month when he made his way through what was, by that time of the evening, a virtually empty Anfield mixed zone.

Before he had even reached the doors of the entrance, though, Konate was already making his excuses.

A request to stop and chat about a morale-boosting win was met with a polite rejection and a claim that his family were waiting for him in the players’ lounge.

The Frenchman will have known full well that the conversation, had he stopped to speak to the two or three reporters who were still lying in wait, would have moved on to his current contract status on Merseyside.

And for a player who has developed a reputation for being open and honest in his chats with journalists, it was likely decided that silence was the best policy.

Liverpool's season was dominated by contract talks last time out as the uncertainty over Mohamed Salah, Virgil van Dijk and Trent Alexander-Arnold dragged into April before a resolution was found on all three.

Salah and Van Dijk signed respective two-year deals before Alexander-Arnold formally announced his decision to leave in early May. After a season of endless questions and opinions, supporters finally had their answers at the back end of the term.