Slot hoping van Dijk will follow Salah by signing new Liverpool deal | OneFootball

Liverpool manager Arne Slot says he is delighted that Mo Salah has put pen to paper on a new two-year deal with the club and hopes Virgil van Dijk will do the same.

Salah’s previous contract was due to expire at the end of this season but he is now set to make it ten years at the club with his new deal.

And Reds boss Slot says he is delighted to have the opportunity to continue working with the forward.

“Happy, of course,” he said when asked for his reaction to the news.

“He has shown at this club for so many years in a row how much of a value he is for the club and the team.

“As like all our fans and his team-mates, we are very happy that he has extended or two more years.

“And hopefully, he can show on Sunday again [against West Ham in the Premier League] how important he has been for us all season.

Announcing the new deal, Salah told the club he believes he can help them to win more big trophies before he leaves.

“Of course I’m very excited. We have a great team now,” Salah said in a statement on the Liverpool website.

“Before also we had a great team. But I signed because I think we have a chance to win other trophies and enjoy my football.

“It’s great, I had my best years here. I played eight years, hopefully it’s going to be 10. Enjoying my life here, enjoying my football. I had the best years in my career.

“I would like to say to [the fans], I am very, very happy to be here. I signed here because I believe we can win a lot of big trophies together. Keep supporting us and we’ll give it our best, and hopefully in the future we’re going to win more trophies.”

And Slot now hopes defender and captain van Dijk will also follow suit by signing a new deal before his runs out at the end of the season.

He said: “I think you know the answers – the boring answer as always. We talk about contracts if they are signed. In case with Mo [Salah], we are talking about it. As long as it’s not signed, we are not talking about it.

“I can tell you that I am very happy with Virgil this season. He’s been incredible for us – even in the last few games, where maybe there were moments were he could’ve done better. But if you look at the other 89 minutes, he is such an important player for us.

“Let’s hope he can do the same – I just hope with Mo and he can do the same on Sunday again, being our leader again as he has always been this season, against West Ham.”