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Arne Slot was quick to name-check 17-year-old midfielder Trey Nyoni as one of his first-team options when discussing recent departures of Liverpool youngsters.
Liverpool have already allowed Bobby Clark (Salzburg, £10m) and Lewis Koumas (Stoke, loan) to leave the club this summer and more deals are expected to follow.
But while the club could sanction the exits of players such as Stefan Bajcetic, Tyler Morton, Ben Doak and James McConnell, there are plans in place for Nyoni.
The teenager, signed from Leicester last summer, featured heavily throughout pre-season and travelled for the 2-0 win over Ipswich last weekend.
And having not been involved in either of the Liverpool U21s’ two fixtures so far, the understanding is that he will largely remain with the first team.
That showed in Slot’s pre-Brentford press conference when he was asked about the club allowing a host of youngsters to move on.
“I think still this team, with what we have, has a lot of homegrown players. One of them, Trey Nyoni, is also training with us on a daily basis at only 17,” he told reporters.
“So this club will always bring good youngsters.”
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Slot added: “If they want to play somewhere and it’s not possible with us…then you have to, in my opinion, let them develop somewhere else.”
While a decision was quickly made over the likes of McConnell and Doak, who dropped down to the U21s after pre-season, the head coach has kept faith in Nyoni.
Though he was not on the bench at Ipswich, his inclusion in the travelling squad was a sign that he will be given opportunities as the season unfolds.
The likelihood is that many of these will come in the domestic cups and perhaps even in the Champions League, with a new eight-game ‘league phase’ drawn next week.
Despite being well under 21, however, Nyoni does not yet qualify as an U21 player in Europe having not been with Liverpool for long enough, and would therefore need to be registered as part of a 25-man senior squad.
But there is every indication that Slot will include him, with the Dutchman banking on his No. 98 over a number of others this season.
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