Andoni Iraola called Curtis Jones “a great, great player” and said he hopes he can stay. That sits alongside a noisier detail from Liverpool’s pre-season night against Wrexham: Jones, Dominik Szoboszlai and later Konstantinos Tsimikas were arguing on the pitch after the final whistle, as the players walked over to applaud supporters. Liverpool had earlier rejected a £21.7m offer from Inter Milan for Jones, and he has one year left on his current deal.

The Jones situation is now bigger than the result

Iraola’s BBC quote was pretty direct. “I rate Curtis very highly. For me he is a great, great player, and I hope he can continue with us and continue performing the way he has been performing.” That is not the kind of language a club uses about someone drifting to the edge of the squad.

Jones is not being discussed as a bit-part name, either. He has five recent Premier League appearances in the sample and a best recent league rating of 7.9. That level helps explain why the argument mattered: Liverpool are still treating him as a serious player, while outside interest has already surfaced and the contract clock is ticking.

Liverpool’s patched-up back line

The other strand of the night was more practical. Luke Chambers was used at centre-back against Wrexham despite being naturally a left-back, and he said Iraola simply told him to play his game. Chambers added that he had been seen in training, knew what he was like at left-back, and could carry that reading of the game into a narrower role.

That improvisation fits the wider picture. Virgil van Dijk was starting his own pre-season schedule back at the AXA Training Centre, Joe Gomez was forced off injured after just eight minutes against Sunderland, Jeremy Jacquet is being managed carefully after a lengthy absence with a dislocated shoulder and Giovanni Leoni is still not fit after injuring his ACL last September.

Chambers said the role felt “really good” and admitted centre-back is “quite tough”, especially against a good Championship side. Liverpool got through the night, and Rio Ngumoha scored the only goal of the game with a 75th-minute winner in New York, but the more awkward image was the one after full time. Jones’ future, and Liverpool’s defensive depth, both feel like live issues going into the rest of pre-season.

Written by Jack Mercer with AI-assisted research, cross-checked against 3 outlets. How we work →