Liverpool plan to trigger a one-year extension clause in the contract of fan-outcast Dejan Lovren, according to the BBC.
Lovren is currently among Liverpool’s top-ten earners on a £100,000-per-week contract penned in 2017, which saw his pay rise from the initial £65k-p/w deal agreed upon following his arrival from Southampton for £20million six years ago.
The deal has just one year remaining, but the Reds are reluctant to allow Lovren to progress further into the final 12-months and plan to trigger a one-year extension clause that could see his time at Anfield stretch until to the summer of 2022.
Lovren’s immediate future on Merseyside is not set in stone, even should the 2019/20 Premier League champions elect to trigger the clause, as the 6 ft 2 centre-half is also believed to have attracted the interest of Russian side Zenit St. Petersburg ahead of the upcoming transfer market.
Despite prior reports, which saw dozens of fans flock to social media to pray that Lovren leaves Anfield, claim Zenit’s interest is strong, the BBC note that no contact has yet been made by Sergei Semak’s Gazprom Arena natives with Liverpool.
Should Liverpool sell Lovren this summer?
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Liverpool triggering the one-year extension clause in Lovren’s contract can be seen by Reds supporters in multiple ways, though it would be unlikely that the Croatian will be spending the next two years of his career on the books at Anfield.
Manager Jurgen Klopp has been ever-more reluctant to call upon the Croatian to feature this season, with Lovren last starting a Premier League fixture in February as Liverpool sustained their first defeat of the campaign away to Watford.
Instead, Liverpool triggering the clause would be better thought of as the Reds looking to secure as much as possible in the transfer window, with the club holding a far superior hand with the 31-year-old under contract for the next 24-months rather than 12.