Hansi Flick decision all but confirms Ronald Araujo move to Liverpool as medical scheduled

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Ronald Araujo is reportedly set to have his medical on Sunday ahead of his proposed loan move to Liverpool, and Barcelona manager Hansi Flick appeared to all but confirm the transfer on Saturday.It was late on Friday night that Fabrizio Romano dropped the bombshell news (via X) that the Reds have agreed a loan deal for the Uruguay defender, with the two clubs striking a verbal agreement for the 27-year-old to move to Anfield.He’s set to give Andoni Iraola another option at both centre-back and right-back, two positions where we’ve been frightfully short in terms of squad depth during pre-season, and his exit from the LaLiga champions seemed to be effectively confirmed over the weekend.Araujo due to have Liverpool medical on SundayAs noted by the Liverpool Echo, Araujo didn’t travel with Flick’s squad for Barcelona’s double header against Nottingham Forest and Udinese in the Friuli Venezia Giulia Cup on Saturday, with the pair having held a meeting beforehand in which the manager gave the player the green light to leave.The Uruguayan is set to travel for a medical today, and Liverpool are expected to cover the entirety of his wages (just over £205,000 per week, according to Capology) while he’s at Anfield.The Reds are understood to have a £47.2m purchase option for the defender, which reportedly has a deadline for next summer. There is no obligation for a permanent transfer if the move doesn’t work out as intended.Want more Empire of the Kop coverage?

Add us as a preferred source on Google to your favourites list for news you can trustAraujo a much-needed (impending) defensive addition at LiverpoolRomano has indicated that Iraola plans to use Araujo primarily as a centre-back, but also as cover on the right if needed, adding that he doesn’t expect Liverpool to ‘add anything else in that position’ for the remainder of the transfer window.Fan reaction to the impending move for the Barcelona defender has been rather mixed, but in our view there’s far more reason to be cheerful than fearful that the 27-year-old seems to be on his way to Merseyside.That the Reds didn’t have a natural senior centre-back available for almost all of the recent U.S. tour was tragicomic, and the injury records of Conor Bradley and Jeremie Frimpong set alarm bells ringing in terms of right-back cover as well.With more than 200 appearances for the Blaugrana, Araujo is an experienced option at the highest level whose impending arrival will greatly help to boost squad depth in two problematic positions, and that it’s a loan deal without an obligation to buy makes it a low-risk addition.Concerns have been raised among some fans on social media over his impetuous nature on the pitch and his error-prone tendencies, but those imperfections still seem preferable to Liverpool not addressing the defence in the transfer window and going into the season with skeletal squad depth.Assuming all goes to plan with the medical, we can probably expect full confirmation of the loan move in the next few days, and a collective sigh of relief that at least the defensive woes of recent weeks haven’t been ignored by FSG.