Stefan Bajcetic’s Liverpool career may not be over
Stefan Bajcetic could still earn a future at Liverpool under Andoni Iraola, who is reported to admire the midfielder and is set to give him a chance in pre-season.
Bajcetic returned early for pre-season work at the AXA Training Centre last week, training in the gym and alongside the U21s.
That comes with the 21-year-old at a crossroads in his career: into the final year of his contract at Liverpool and having seen his progress stall due to injury.
But the appointment of his compatriot has offered Bajcetic a lifeline, with transfer journalist Matteo Moretto telling MARCA that “Iraola likes him a lot.”
“Iraola wants to keep him for now; he wants to see him during pre-season,” he explained.
“If he stays, he’ll renew his contract with Liverpool. If not, he’ll look for another club.”
Moretto added that, if Bajcetic does leave Anfield after six-and-a-half years, he “wants to return to Spain,” where he came through the academy at Celta Vigo.
The Athletic‘s Gregg Evans has corroborated claims of interest from a number of LaLiga sides, with Sevilla, Rayo Vallecano, Getafe and Elche all linked.
If Bajcetic were to depart, Liverpool are unlikely to be in a position to demand a significant fee, with the midfielder not having played for their first team in over two years and struggling with his fitness.
Why Stefan Bajcetic needs to make up for lost time
After his outstanding breakthrough campaign in 2022/23, he has only played 36 times at senior level over three seasons, including loan spells at Salzburg and Las Palmas.
His time at Las Palmas showed he is capable of thriving as a first-team regular in one of Europe’s top five leagues, but even that ended early as he required hamstring surgery.
Iraola has effectively offered his new Liverpool squad a clean slate as he heads into pre-season, which could give the likes of Bajcetic and Harvey Elliott the chance to turn their fortunes around.
Elliott also looked on course to leave permanently this summer having been frozen out by Arne Slot, but speaking in his first press conference as head coach on Monday, Iraola praised those who had arrived early for pre-season.
“I’m looking at the positives almost, I’ve now had one week to see the training from the under-21s,” he told reporters at the AXA.
“We’ve had some of the players from the first team willing to come a little bit before [they were due], so they are already in a better shape to start.”
He added: “The first part of pre-season basically is going to be with a lot of players from the academy, players that in other situations maybe I wouldn’t know as well.
“Now I will have the chance to get to know them personally, training every day with them, in some friendlies. It’s going to be good information for me.”
