Naby Keita 'to leave Liverpool on a free transfer this summer'

Liverpool have reportedly made the decision to allow Naby Keita to leave the club on a free transfer.

The 27-year-old's current deal with the Reds is due to expire at the end of June, meaning that he is currently free to hold discussions with foreign clubs over a move.

Keita has made 123 appearances for Liverpool since arriving from RB Leipzig in 2018, scoring 11 goals and registering seven assists in the process.

However, he has largely struggled to make his mark for Jurgen Klopp's side, with injuries and a lack of form making it difficult for him to hold down a regular spot in the XI.

Keita has only just recovered from a hamstring issue, and he has featured in Liverpool's last four Premier League games against Aston Villa, Leicester City, Brentford and Brighton & Hove Albion.

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According to Football Insider, Liverpool have recently held talks with the midfielder over an extension to his current deal, with the club reluctant to lose him for nothing at the end of the season.

However, the report claims that the Merseyside giants have now pulled the plug on contract talks, and Keita will therefore leave on a free transfer at the end of June.

Liverpool are believed to have wanted the Guinea international to take a substantial pay cut in order to remain at Anfield due to his poor injury record.

Keita played the final 22 minutes of his team's 3-0 loss to Brighton in the Premier League on Saturday afternoon, replacing Fabinho for the latter stages of the contest.

Liverpool boss Klopp admitted after the match that his side deserved to lose against the Seagulls.

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"Congratulations to Brighton, they played an outstanding game. I really thought in moments we made it a little bit too easy for them, but in general they played outstanding and we didn't. We tried to help the boys with slightly different organisation," Klopp told reporters.

"I actually thought it could have worked pretty well; we had moments where it worked well, where we put them under pressure, but in all situations when we won the ball we lost the balls in the moment much too easy. That's the main problem, so it means we never get this something going.

"Brighton was better for the whole 90 minutes, but it is 0-0 at half-time, so it is allowed for us as well to play not a good half. We have a kind of result and let's go from there, but then obviously the second half started with the worst possible start.

"Being 1-0 down and the game it was already clear already that one team is ready to play a really good game and one team fights with themselves pretty much to get something going.

"That's then the worst possible start and that's what everybody saw then. The problems are the same like last week when we spoke about it: we don't win the key battles on the pitch, the key challenges, and we give the ball away too easily."

Liverpool will be bidding to return to winning ways when they travel to Wolverhampton Wanderers on Tuesday night for an FA Cup third-round replay.