“I Fully Understand it” – Former Liverpool Star on ‘Weird’ Contract Situation: Who Will Stay? | OneFootball

Liverpool Contracts: What Will Happen to Salah, Van Dijk and Alexander-Arnold?

As things continue to unfold brilliantly for Liverpool on the pitch, there’s still a lot of concern regarding the contract situations of three of their most crucial stars. Mohamed Salah, Virgil Van Dijk and Trent Alexander-Arnold all have just seven months left on their current contracts at Liverpool, with them able to negotiate terms with foreign clubs from next month.

Former Liverpool star Stan Collymore spoke to Anfield Index, who revealed his thoughts on the ongoing situation…

“Get them Done!”

“They should keep all three,” began Collymore, “But I do understand Liverpool’s recruitment team thinking about the ages of Salah and Van Dijk.” There appears to be a balancing act in terms of the length of contracts being offered to the two veterans, which Collymore points out.

Photo: IMAGO

“When you go past the age of 30, you are paying players for what they did five or six years previously,” said Collymore. Although, the former Liverpool star was keen to point out that there is exceptions to that way of thinking, and this may be one of those.

Liverpool’s ‘Weird’ Situation

“They’re Liverpool legends and they’ve won everything they could win,” continued Collymore, “So it can be a weird situation because they’ll likely want better terms.”

“So, you can end up paying more money for less output,” said Collymore, “But they were likely on less than their value when they first came, so you can look it as balancing it out across their time at the club.”

Photo: IMAGO

It’s an interesting point raised by Collymore, that the club can take into consideration the ‘bargain’ price tags and wages that the players were previously on, to make these higher wages make more sense. In terms of output, some would argue that Salah and Van Dijk are on top of their game at the moment and are having legendary campaigns. The Egyptian King’s 24 direct goal contributions so far this season speaks volumes of the quality he still holds at 32-years-old.

Securing the Club’s Future

Collymore also made a key point regarding the future of the football club should all players sign, despite their ‘ageing’ profiles.

“Think how important keeping Van Dijk will be for the development of the likes of Jarell Quansah and I’m sure Salah will be the same with the other forwards at the club.”

Photo: IMAGO

There has been huge amounts of conversation over the quality that these three players hold, but their experience of competing at the top level is equally crucial. All three players have won every trophy possible during their time at the club and were part of Jurgen Klopp’s iconic side that won the UEFA Champions League and Premier League in back-to-back seasons.

Salah, Van Dijk and Alexander-Arnold are all part of the club’s senior leadership group alongside Alisson Becker and Andy Robertson. These players are at the centre of everything at the club, both on the pitch and behind the scenes. Their influence simply cannot be understated, and their quality on the pitch speaks for itself.