In a twist of fate, Real Madrid has informed the hierarchy at Liverpool that they are no longer interested in Ibrahim Konate and would be switching their focus to other defensive prospects ahead of the January transfer window. 

Some months ago, the Spanish giants made known their intentions to sign Konate, just after convincing Trent to join them. 

It felt like a repeat of the Trent situation after Liverpool fans were stunned to see Trent speaking Spanish during his Real Madrid unveiling. 

Clearly, he had been cooking up the move to Real Madrid long before any news of the move went public. Trent spoke confidently in Spanish - a pointer to the fact that his move to Real Madrid was calculated. 

For Liverpool fans, rather than go on a free transfer, Trent should have allowed the club get some money off his transfer. At least anything from 55-65 million would not be a bad bargain for a player off the back of winning the Premier League after spending 20 years at the club. 

Liverpool were still licking their wounds when the 15-times Champions of Europe came knocking again, this time for Ibrahim Konate. 

Konate has until June 2026 in his current contract and with Real Madrid’s interest, he seemed to have turned a blind eye to Liverpool’s offer for a contract extension. 

Of course, signing an extension this year would ensure that Liverpool gets some compensation and not lose him for free like they did with Trent. 

Since the contract offer, Konate has clearly avoided contract talks - this can’t be a surprise - especially when it is Real Madrid coming for a player. We all know that Real Madrid gets whoever they want and no player says no to the Spanish giants. 

We saw that with Ronaldo, Beckham, Rudiger, Hazard, Bellingham, Dean Huijsen - these players were important for their respective teams but did not pass on the opportunity to sign for Real Madrid. 

Konate was definitely on that path until the U-turn happened. 

This morning, Real Madrid has informed Liverpool that they have no more intentions to sign Konate and it is not a surprise. 

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Konate’s form has been dipping since the interest shown by Real Madrid. Liverpool has lost 6 games in the Premier League and 3 in the Champions League equaling the club’s worse run of form that they held back in 1953. 

While the team seems to be generally out of sorts, Konate can be singled out for some poor decisions and errors leading to goal - he is not solely responsible but has played the part. 

In their last defeat to PSV in the Champions League, pundits and fans singled out Konate for allowing PSV’s third goal. 

Carragher was vocal after the game when he said “I've f**king had enough of them, honest to God.

"That Konate... I mean that's a sackable offence for the manager for f**king keep picking him. He should be sacked for that."

The video has since been deleted by CBS Sports. 

Certainly, the dip in the form would not have passed the gaze of Real Madrid and this decision was definitely coming. 

Real Madrid have a serious need for defensive reinforcements and from last season until the start of this season, Konate looked like someone that can fill in the gap amidst the absence of Rudiger but not with the current state of the player. 

It now feels like Konate may not be as good as the footballing world thought - he could just be an average player in a good team. 

Now some people are saying maybe Madrid have found another defender or maybe they are trying to look at cheaper or more available options and that may be true but what we know is that they are not coming for Konate again.

That decision alone has now put Liverpool in a very strong position and if they want to be hard they can make him sit on the bench and then run down the contract slowly until nobody wants him again. 

There are other things to talk about but the biggest question now is what will Konate do and how will he recover from this blow because he has lost the only top club that showed serious interest in him. 

If he changes his mind and goes back to sign the Liverpool contract it will look like he was forced and even though that might be the wise thing to do it may not be easy to swallow that pride and go back. 

And if he waits for the current contract to finish and hopes another club comes for him he is taking a very big risk that may backfire badly and by then it may be too late to change anything again.

This is not the first time we have seen a player make a big mistake like this and it is not going to be the last time either because many footballers always think they have more time and more power than they actually do. 

When you delay for too long you may end up delaying yourself and that is exactly what we are seeing here with Konate because instead of being in control of his future he is now at the mercy of what Liverpool want to do. 

And remember that football clubs are very smart and they always remember how you treated them when you had the upper hand so they are not going to forget this easily.
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