Talented Liverpool winger will join the Spanish club for a seven-figure fee

Liverpool youngster Elijah Gift is reportedly leaving for Spain this summer for around £1million.

The 16-year-old has come under fire from Athletic Bilbao after an impressive spell in the Liverpool youth academy.

Athletic’s James Pearce said talks between the two clubs were at an “advanced stage” and a move was likely to be finalized this summer.

It is clear the club were happy to stick with Gift, who has three goals and three assists to his name in the Under-18 Premier League this season.

But it appears that the Spanish side have managed to push the prospect away from Liverpool thanks to the quality of his position and the level of his salary. The emergence of Ben Doak is also likely to have played a part in the club’s decision to sack the player, as the Scottish full-back already has five first-team appearances having turned just 17 in November.

Harvey Blair, Trent Kone-Doherty and Ranel Young are all showing promising signs of development in that area of ​​the pitch as well, keeping the academy healthy in offensive areas.
Born in the Spanish town of Corella, Gift was in keeping with the Athletic Club’s unwritten policy of signing only players of Basque descent.
The rule places an Athletic Club bounty on players in that region, which is calculated into the final price for the player.
The striker joined the Reds at under-12 level and made 18 appearances in all competitions for the under-18s in 2022/23. However, he has only started eight times, playing most of his 959 minutes as a substitute for Marc Bridge-Wilkinson’s side.

Also..

Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp makes transfer offer to disillusioned Liverpool stars after Mo Salah rampage.

The Liverpool manager has made it clear that if a player has doubts about staying at Anfield after failing to qualify for the Champions League, he will steer them to a new club himself.

Jurgen Klopp has rejected the idea of ​​Mo Salah leaving this summer by insisting ‘Mo loves this club’.

But the Liverpool manager has made it clear that if a player has any doubts about staying at Anfield after failing to qualify for the Champions League, he will guide him to a new club himself.

Salah sparked fears that he was considering a move in the off-season, following a bizarrely worded tweet – smacking of the agent’s influence – on Thursday night that suggested his deep-seated disgust at missing out on top European football.

But Klopp brutally replied: “If ever a player came up to me and said: ‘oh, we didn’t qualify for the Champions League, I have to leave, I would take him to the other club myself.

“I took the key, (and said) ‘get in the car, wherever you want to go, I’ll drive you’.”

Salah’s tweet said he was “totally devastated” at missing out on the Champions League, adding: “There is absolutely no excuse for this. We have failed and we have failed you and ourselves.

With PSG attracting interest from clubs, fans inevitably feared their representatives would consider a transfer, but Klopp responded firmly when asked if he feared Salah might leave:

“I’m not worried, no. I couldn’t read anything to suggest that. Obviously Mo likes being here and Mo was here, he said, apologizing for what” we have done.

“He didn’t say: ‘apologies for what the other guys did, but I had to go with them’…not at all. It is all fine.”

At 31 though Salah has only limited seasons left to play at European football’s top table, and there are others in the squad – with Virgil van Dijk also 31, Alisson 30, and Andy Robertson and Fabinho both 29 – in the same position.

But Klopp was brutal in his put down of any player who wanted to leave because of one season outside the Champions League, and he added with pointed intent:

“That would be something I never could understand. It is like I would say (he puts on a childish voice for emphasis) ‘oh we didn’t qualify for the Champions League, I need to work in the Champions League so I go’.”