On Thursday, we relayed an article from AS in Spain clarifying the situation surrounding Jan Oblak’s contract amid interest from Liverpool.
Quotes from club president Enrique Cerezo about him ‘renewing’ were misconstrued by the foreign press, with the newspaper explaining he was referring to his current deal, which he signed two years ago.
His release clause still stands at €100m, which is a lot of money for a goalkeeper, but the same AS report on Friday Atlético Madrid know a few clubs could easily trigger that (although would Liverpool?) in the summer, and that’s why they have plans to improve his terms in the near future.
Their idea is to keep the likes of Oblak and Antoine Griezmann beyond this season if possible, and that means new contracts.
In order to do this, AS explain Atlético are trying to reduce their wage bill, and that’s why the likes of Nicolas Gaitan and Yannick Carrasco, for whom they also got decent transfer fees, were allowed to leave.
The club is also looking for new sponsors, as Diego Simeone tries to hold on to his core of quality players to try and win more titles in the future.
For Liverpool, this means having to try and get in there as soon as possible before Atlético get this plan done.
However, with Allison likely to be the cheaper option for the Anfield based club, perhaps they’ll just leave the expensive one to Paris Saint-Germain.
