Yep, Kevin got the goal last night, and it was lovely to clap him off for the penultimate time.
But there were also several occasions when, almost completely unforced, he just let the ball get away from him or didn't quite control it. And there were moments when he got easily bullied off the ball and left in a heap on the floor by much younger midfielders. Kevin has always been absolute master at using his physical attributes (incredible stamina, deceptively quick bursts over 10 yards) to buy himself the space to produce the wizardry we've come to expect from him. But his stamina is going fast and his ability to burst into space away from a defender is almost totally gone. And next year he'll be yet another year slower and another year less able to do what he wants on a football pitch.
Kevin says it's a "business decision" to let him go. That says to me that he's on massive wages and the club won't renew him because we can't justify giving him £400k-a-week to only play him 50% of the time, especially when we want players like Wirtz, Gibbs-White, Simons, Cherki, etc. to take the club forward. People say we should keep Kevin over Gundogan but I imagine Ilkay is a) already on reduced wages from 2023, b) doesn't cause the team to restructure itself whenever he plays, c) happy to accept a significantly reduced role next season, and d) being groomed to join Pep's backroom staff in 2026 when his playing contract is up. Kevin wants the same wages, causes the team to drop 20 yards when he's playing, still believes he should be playing every week, and doesn't seem interested in coaching/management.
He can't stay. If he'd signed an extension we'd all be here in 12 months saying it was a mistake. Always leave them wanting more, as the saying goes. We've seen with Gundogan this season, and also players like Fernandinho and Demichelis down the years, what happens when you think "Ooh, maybe just one more season" based on a purple patch. Liverpool are probably going to find this out when Salah's explosiveness goes in the next 18 months and they're left wondering why they spunked £1m-a-week up the wall on keeping him and Van Dijk when they should have let Arne Slot start his rebuild. Let's just win the FA Cup and finish in the top four to give Kevin the send-off he deserves.
