Andoni Iraola to land Liverpool 'new signing' Arne Slot was denied after major update

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Stefan Bajcetic was back training over the weekend as he aims to catch the eye of Andoni Iraola this pre-season at LiverpoolWhile most of the Liverpool squad are either at the World Cup or enjoying an end-of-season holiday, Stefan Bajcetic is treading a different path.It's been something of a nightmare period for the Spanish midfielder and such has been his inactivity over the last two years that he is in danger of becoming the forgotten man at Anfield.His last outing, in fact, came under Jurgen Klopp, which was a late cameo in a 4-2 win over Tottenham Hotspur in May 2024. To find his most recent start, you have to trawl back nearly three years, to a 3-1 Europa League win over LASK in Austria, where he started at right-back and was taken off after an hour.Bajcetic hasn't started a game in the Premier League since March of 2023 when he was forced off in a 1-0 defeat against Bournemouth just as his Reds career was really taking flight.The former Celta Vigo teenager benefited from a huge drop-off in Klopp's engine room during the 2022/23 season, spending the second half of that campaign looking like a long-term prospect with assured displays in big games like the Merseyside derby and Newcastle United away.His press-resistance and ball-playing qualities at the base of the midfield shone for a period as he looked to make good on the promise of potential, having initially arrived as a centre-back for the academy ranks aged 16.That injury, an adductor tear, at the Vitality Stadium, however, has been a debilitating one as far as Liverpool career goes.

That game was his 19th as a Reds player and his tally now, over three years on, stands at just 22.Loan spells with Red Bull Salzburg and Las Palmas brought mixed results and Bajcetic has quietly been working behind the scenes for some time at the AXA Training Centre, trying to put a nightmare few years behind him after a string of injury issues.The Spain Under-21 international made 19 appearances for Salzburg but made the mid-season switch back to his homeland with Las Palmas after Pep Lijnders, who was instrumental in taking him to Austria, was sacked shortly before Christmas.Arne Slot spoke effusively about Bajcetic on the eve of his loan spell away from the club, saying in August of 2024: “I hope it will be a big year for him because he’s a very talented player because he’s been out for 15 months and I think he could become a very important player for us, only if he gets playing time now.“If you are that young and you’ve been out for so long, the only thing you need is playing time. He could have playing time over here, but we’ve got six or seven very good midfielders, so his playing time here will always be more limited than we expect him to play at Salzburg.“So for him, and us, we think it’s the best for him to play at the moment, instead of maybe play a few times and then be on the bench for a long time again.

It’s very difficult to keep a player fit who’s been out for 15 months to only play him once in a while.“So this is for the long term. It’s a smart decision, at least in our opinion, to let him go somewhere, where he will hopefully play a lot of games.“Then for next season, we’ll have a player, if he fulfils his potential, could definitely, definitely play for us in the future.”Still just 21, it was hugely encouraging to see him back on the grass over the weekend with Bajcetic cutting short his summer break to get ahead on pre-season training as a critically important period of his career awaits in the coming weeks.With Andoni Iraola saying his squad members are all 'like new signings' to him and the World Cup depriving the new head coach of many key players on the tour of the United States, opportunity might just be knocking at the right time for Bajcetic."Back on track," he posted alongside the images of him at the AXA Training Centre on Saturday as he worked to a personalised, tailored regime.