Liverpool midfielder 'attracted' by January transfer as club 'want to guarantee' clause in contract

Liverpool midfielder Stefan Bajcetic is keen on making a move in the January transfer window, reports suggest.

Bajcetic has spent the first half of the season on loan at Red Bull Salzburg. He joined the Austrian club in the summer to reunite with former Reds assistant manager Pep Lijnders. At the time, it appeared the perfect switch for Bajcetic, who required regular minutes after spending much of the 2024-25 season sidelined through injury.

But the Spaniard faces uncertainty at Salzburg. Lijnders was sacked last month with Die Roten Bullen sitting just fifth in the Austrian Bundesliga and facing Champions League elimination. Bajcetic has made a total of 18 appearances but started only eight of them. Thomas Letsch has replaced Lijnders in the Salzburg hot seat but the 20-year-old could look to depart.

Bajcetic has been linked with a switch to his native Spain, with Real Betis links. Manuel Pellegrini’s side are ninth in La Liga as they aim for European qualification in the second half of the campaign. According to Seville-based newspaper ABC, Bajcetic is ‘attracted by the idea of playing’ in the Spanish top flight’ and is ‘waiting for the parties to make arrangements to complete his arrival at Betis’.

However, it is suggested that Los Mejores want to guarantee that the loan has ‘an option for the future’. It is not clear whether that means the potential to purchase Bajcetic on a permanent basis or to take him on a temporary basis again down the line.

Bajcetic joined Liverpool from Celta Vigo in December 2020. He enjoyed a breakthrough 2022-23 season and was a beacon of light during the Reds’ struggles, making 19 appearances before suffering an injury that required surgery. Last term, he got only three appearances under his belt because of fitness issues.

Liverpool head coach Arne Slot said on Bajcetic after he joined Salzburg: “I hope it will be a big year for him because he’s a very talented player and I think he could become a very important player for us, but 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 best for him to play at the moment, instead of maybe playing a few times and then being on the bench for a long time again. It’s very difficult to keep a player fit who’s been out for 15 months when you only play him once in a while.

“So this is for the long term. Again, this club has been smart, in my opinion, in the past for not only looking for the short term, but also 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, [he] could definitely, definitely play for us in the future.”