Standard Liege want to keep Brighton & Hove Albion’s Steven Alzate at the club next season, although they’ll need to work out an agreement with the Seagulls for that to happen.
That’s according to La Dernière Heure, relayed by Voetbal Nieuws, who say the club’s board are ready to sanction deals and back manager Ronny Deila in the market.
According to them, the Belgian side’s good season under Deila, who is making the most out of the talent available to him, has pushed the board to ‘step up their game’ if they plan to be a regular in the top four in future.
Two transfers they are aiming to secure are those of Alzate and Philipe Zinckernagel, who are both on loan at the club and have been regulars this season.
Those loan deals don’t include an option to buy but doing so would be ‘very difficult financially’ anyway, so the Walloon club wants to rent them for another year.
Both players have indicated that they would be happy to stay where they are, particularly Alzate, who made it clear recently he doesn’t fancy a return to Brighton at the end of the season.
The problems lies in the fact his current contract with Brighton ends in 2024, meaning he is entering the final year of his deal this summer.
It’s a similar situation for Zinckernagel with Olympiakos and the newspaper’s belief is that they and Brighton would want to ‘monetise’ both players rather than sending them out on loan to be free agents next summer.
The solution is that both players extend their contracts and are then loaned out, but whether that’s on the table remains to be seen. At the moment the only clear thing is that Alzate wants to stay and Liege think similarly.
