With just over seven months remaining on his Liverpool contract, barely a day goes by without the spotlight being shed on whether or not Ibrahima Konate will be at Anfield next season.In recent days, Sky reporter Sacha Tavolieri claimed that Merseyside chiefs have made a ‘final offer’ to the 26-year-old that they believe to be ‘very generous’, and that the defender has ‘always wanted’ to play for the perennially linked Real Madrid.The player took it upon himself to dismiss such speculation and insists that his representatives are in talks with LFC, with the hope that a decision can be announced ‘very soon’.Finance expert claims Konate is ‘likely’ to leave next summerNevertheless, Stefan Borson – a former financial adviser to Manchester City – believes that, with Konate’s contract running perilously close to expiry, the France international is more likely to depart on a free transfer next year than to remain at Liverpool.He told Football Insider: “On any basis, even if he’s out of form, he’s worth £50m, so you do your best to try and get him on a contract so that you can then sell him on or keep him.“I’m sure they are offering him a contract. I’m sure they’ll continue offering him a contract all the way through to the end of his contract, but it does seem like he’s probably going to go, especially if he’s got an offer.“If that offer is crystallised in January – as we know it can be to go abroad – then that’ll be the end of that. It’s likely he’ll go on a free transfer now. When you get to this stage and with the noise, it feels like he’s going to go. It’s disappointing for Liverpool.”(Photo by Michael Regan/Getty Images)Still time enough for Konate and Liverpool to agree a new dealBorson might seem to think that it’s too far gone now for Konate to extend his contract, but it’s worth remembering that Mo Salah and Virgil van Dijk were less than three months away from becoming free agents when they renewed their respective Liverpool deals last April.It may well be the case that the 26-year-old wants to stay at Anfield and is merely trying to engineer the best possible agreement for himself in negotiations with the club. A major career decison like this, and all the fine print which comes with multimillion-pound contracts, doesn’t materialise overnight.It’d obviously be ideal for the Frenchman to pen new terms before the end of this year, so that any prospect of being lured overseas in a pre-contract agreement is eliminated, as would any uncomfortable discourse regarding his future.If Konate wants to stay at Liverpool and LFC want to keep him, the likelihood is that a deal will eventually be agreed and he’ll remain on Merseyside for the foreseeable. It might just take that little while longer for everything to be green-lighted and for an official announcement to be made.In the meantime, we’ll continue to hope that both parties will come to an agreement sooner rather than later.You can watch Slot’s full post-Man City press conference via Empire of the Kop on YouTube:The post “It’s likely he’ll…” – Football finance expert makes Konate prediction amid contract uncertainty appeared first on The Empire of The Kop.