Liverpool midfielder outlines future plan ahead of 'important summer'
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Young Liverpool midfielder Luca Stephenson has outlined his future plans ahead of an "important summer" that comes off the back of two good seasons on loan in ScotlandLuca Stephenson during a Liverpool training session in August 2024.(Image: Andrew Powell/Liverpool FC via Getty Images)Twenty-two-year-old Liverpool midfielder Luca Stephenson says his future might need to lie elsewhere after two strong seasons on loan in the Scottish Premiership.Despite his good performances there, Stephenson remains some way off being able to make himself a regular fixture in the Liverpool senior team. Normally a midfielder, he filled in at right-back at times last summer, but has plenty of competition from more established stars.And while Andoni Iraola will give some young players a chance to impress in pre-season, links with Bolton and Blackburn in the Championship might make more sense for Stephenson after impressing at Dundee United."It’s going to be an important summer for me," Stephenson told The Athletic.
"If I'm around, I’ll be looking to get on that pre-season tour, hopefully get some minutes, and impress."I’m at the age now where I need to be playing first-team football, like I have done for the past couple of seasons."If that’s at Liverpool, fantastic. If it’s not, I’ll find a new adventure, like the other boys who have left and done really well."Rangers defender Jayden Meghoma vies with Luca Stephenson of Dundee United.(Image: Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)Last summer, the likes of Tyler Morton and Caoimhin Kelleher moved on.
Morton has settled very well with Lyon in France, while Kelleher is an established Premier League player with Brentford.Though Iraola is keen to run the rule over the crop of young talents at Anfield, Stephenson, at 22, might be best served finding a permanent home elsewhere in terms of his career development."I think it's important in both ways," Iraola said in his first interview at Liverpool when he was asked about young players taking part in pre-season.Get Liverpool's new 2026/27 home kitThis article contains affiliate links, we will receive a commission on any sales we generate from it. Learn moreLiverpool FC have launched their new home kit for the 2026/27, inspired by iconic adidas strip worn during the club's 1989/90 title-winning campaign."The senior players that have played in the World Cup, they've been feeling the pressure, they've been playing for their countries, I think they need and deserve a rest."And also this allows us to give also important minutes to train more closely with the young players that probably we don't know as well."We've been here already three seasons, playing a lot of times against Liverpool, and there are players that we already know."But there are other players probably that haven't had the minutes, have played for the development squad, have been on loan somewhere, and I think those trainings, those minutes will be very valuable for us to take decisions."