Liverpool are gearing up for their first season under Arne Slot.

Ibrahima Konate has joked that he ‘hates’ one of his Liverpool teammates due to a heartbreaking moment in his career.

Konate first joined the Reds from RB Leipzig back in 2021 in a deal worth a reported fee of £36 million.

Since then, the Frenchman has made 90 appearances for Liverpool across all competitions, scoring three goals.

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Ahead of the new season, a number of Liverpool players were involved in the ‘I’m passing the phone to’ challenge which was posted on the club’s social media account.

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In the video, Konate joked that he hates Alexis Mac Allister after Argentina beat France in the 2022 World Cup final in Qatar.

Of course, it was just a light-hearted moment as Konate also stated he loves the Argentine midfielder.

The defender said: “I’m giving the phone to someone that I love a lot, but I hate at the same time because I lost the World Cup final against him.”

Mac Allister then took over the phone and said: “I’m passing the Pixel 9 to the best passer in the team,” which turned out to be Trent Alexander-Arnold.

The likes of Virgil van Dijk, Curtis Jones, Stefan Bajcetic and Cody Gakpo were all involved in the video. You can watch the footage below.

Liverpool will kick off their 24/25 Premier League season this weekend with what could be a potential banana skin as they travel to Portman Road to take on newly-promoted Ipswich Town on Saturday afternoon.

Speaking ahead of the match, Dutchman Gakpo said: “Every first day of the season is like the first day of school! It’s always a very exciting time.

“We want to start the season very well, obviously, we want to win and that’s what we train so hard for in the pre-season, even though some – including myself – joined later. We are there and we try to play the best football we can and go for the win.”

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He added: “I’m feeling good, to be honest. I feel good after the summer break. I’m really happy to get back to work.

“I’m very confident. It was a good Euros for me [but] unfortunately we lost to England. It was a good one for us as a country as well, even though we could do better maybe. I’m very happy to be back, full of confidence and I need to keep performing like that here as well.”