Liverpool transfer news: Ibrahima Konate drops hint over future after addressing club failures

Liverpool defender Ibrahima Konate believes that the club’s struggles this season are a natural side effect of the club’s ongoing efforts to rebuild another successful team for the future.

The Merseyside giants won the Premier League title in impressive fashion in Arne Slot’s first season in charge and many expect the club to kick on this term following their £450m summer spending spree.

Liverpool broke their transfer record twice to bring in Florian Wirtz and then Alexander Isak, while Hugo Ekitike, Jeremie Frimpong, Milos Kerkez and Giovanni Leoni also arrived at Anfield last summer.

Following the tragic passing of Diogo Jota and departure of first-team stars including Luis Diaz and Darwin Nunez, Liverpool were compelled to bolster their squad with fresh faces.

However, the Reds have endured a difficult defence of their top-flight title and currently sit a staggering 21 points behind leaders Arsenal with seven games remaining.

Champions League qualification is now the priority for Slot’s side, who have lost 10 league games this season and sit fifth in the table, five points behind Aston Villa in fourth spot.

Konate addresses how Liverpool plan to be successful again

Konate has been a regular at the heart of Liverpool’s defence this season, playing 41 times in all competitions, and has acknowledged that “many things” have contributed to the club’s decline.

However, the France international is confident that the Reds are now heading in the right direction and has hinted that he will be part of the club’s future going forward.

Konate is out of contract in the summer and has been heavily linked with an exit, but the 26-year-old has referred to himself and the club as “we” when discussing Liverpool’s plans to win silverware again.

Asked about Liverpool's difficult campaign, Konate told ESPN: "We can say many, many, many, many things. People are going to say we bring in new players, (but) many things happened like we lost a player when we started the season. Many things happened to us this season.

"What people will have to understand, and this is my point, before we won the league last season, we had just built the team to win the Premier League at that moment. That's part of the success, that's the way to success.

Konate: “We have to stay together and the success will come”

"Now that we have brought in new players, of course they are not going to perform straight (away) from the first game. This is what I have said to many players, we just have to be relaxed as this is part of the success.

"We bring new players, we will adapt, we will try to work and understand each other all together, and at a point in time we will win trophies and we will have success."

Konate added: "When we win the league or the Champions League, people will forget every bad season we had. We won the league last season but two seasons before that we were (qualified) in the Europa League, but people don't talk about this anymore. This is just part of the success.

"We have to be relaxed because we have amazing fans and we have to stay together and the success will come, for sure. Maybe this season or maybe in the future for sure."

Konate, who has previously been linked with Real Madrid, represented France on international duty this month, playing in a 2-1 friendly victory over Brazil last Thursday.