10-year contract shows Liverpool the way forward | OneFootball

There's a new normal in football and Liverpool must get on board. A 10-year contract shows them the way.

Football both seems incredible and absolutely pointless right now.

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On the one hand, the tragedy around Diogo Jota makes talking about football and transfers feel utterly ridiculous. None of it matters and it's all so trivial. Liverpool might sign a new centre-back - so what?

On the other, the outpouring of emotion, let alone what we're all feeling, highlights just how powerful the game is. 99.9 per cent of the people reading this never met Diogo and only know him through performances for Liverpool.

Somehow, that's enough for him to have left an eternal impression on us and his passing leaves a clear, painful void. Arrigo Sacchi once said that 'football is the most important of the least important things in life' and it rings true.

That's just a long-winded way of saying this is an article about football. It feels weird and a little bit wrong to write, but we're a football site so here's something on football.

A comment on something that really doesn't matter yet clearly does.

Nico Williams' 10-year contract

Athletic Bilbao surprised everyone on Friday as they announced a 10-year contract for Nico Williams. This being a player who was destined to leave the club this summer.

Barcelona wanted him desperately. Bayern Munich were very much in the race. Arsenal weren't quite as favoured as those two but were another top club hoping to sign Williams.

Barcelona were the favourites, though. They wanted to connect Williams with Lamine Yamal, much as they have to great effect with the Spanish national team.

That one continued to get closer and closer to becoming reality. So much so that Bilbao fans vandalised a mural in the city of Williams and his brother, Inaki. They actually vandalised it three times.

The club actually used that story to announce Nico Williams was staying. It showed a man spraying 'WIN 2035' on the mural.

They then revealed the man to by Williams, who announced he was choosing his 'heart' and remaining with Bilbao. And will do so for a long time.

This is a 10-year contract - an eight-year extension on his current deal - that includes a 50 per cent in his release clause. It's an unbelievable show of loyalty to Bilbao.

It's also a showcase of where football is heading. Transfers, it seems, aren't what they used to be, after all, and holding onto top players is the real 'future'.

Liverpool knew the latter part and have done for a long time. Michael Edwards has always held the policy of 'you don't sell your best players' and only really broke that rule when Barcelona put up an unfathomable amount for Philippe Coutinho.

But reality is that transfers mostly fail. Again, Liverpool know this - they don't like signing players unless they're viewed as perfect, as seen last summer.

The Reds decided not to sign anyone in midfield after first-choice target Martin Zubimendi said no. It was a decision that ultimately delivered the Premier League target and saw Ryan Gravenberch rise to world-class status.

It all comes together to highlight why 10-year contracts suddenly make sense. Transfers are ridiculously expensive and risky. Long-term contracts for elite players really aren't.

Would anyway be unhappy if Conor Bradley got a 10-year deal and signed his entire future to Liverpool? Ibrahima Konate is coming to the end of his current deal but if the club tied him down for a decade, we'd be ecstatic - and we'd argue that's probably a better use of money than risking it on a transfer.

After all, we know these players and how they fit in. There's reliability there that you don't get with transfers and it appears stars are far more willing to recognise that with long-term deals.

Now, we're certainly not suggesting Liverpool go the Chelsea route and hand incredibly long contracts to players just arriving at the club. That's a risk not worth taking.

But shifting the priority and the money from transfers to contracts? More and more, that feels like the sensible and exciting move.