Liverpool supporters are desperate for news on the futures of Mohamed Salah, Virgil van Dijk and Trent Alexander-Arnold. But that doesn’t mean you can just make it up, which is what an unnamed outlet seemingly decided to do.
The fact of the matter is that Van Dijk already said it best: “I don’t know what will happen next year so if anyone says they do, they are lying to you.” It is from this that publications should take their lead until something concrete emerges.
Of course, Van Dijk only speaks for himself, and Salah and Alexander-Arnold could be at different stages in their thinking. The former has previously said he is “more out than in“, while the latter has barely broken his silence at all.
But Liverpool sources have repeatedly been adamant that negotiations are ongoing with all three players. They haven’t signed extensions at Anfield yet, but nor have they signed elsewhere, which they have been entitled to do since January.
One thing’s for sure: if any of them do leave Liverpool, it will be a carefully considered decision. It will not be a snap call on the back of Champions League and Carabao Cup defeats.
And yet it was claimed elsewhere that “challenging weeks” have led Salah, Van Dijk and Alexander-Arnold to feel that the project has “lost momentum”, resulting in the collective decision to seek new challenges.
This is patently the kind of nonsense that Van Dijk warned us about. After all, the captain’s comments about still having “no idea” where his future lies came after the Champions League defeat to PSG — are we supposed to believe that the Wembley loss alone tipped him over the edge, decisively settling a matter that had been up in the air mere days before?
(Image: Stu Forster/Getty Images)
It would be one thing if one of the out-of-contract players had reached such an unlikely conclusion. But for all three to have written off Liverpool’s project as Arne Slot stands on the brink of winning the Premier League is simply not credible.
The report conjures up images of secret backroom meetings between Salah, Van Dijk and Alexander-Arnold at the AXA Training Centre, where they pass judgment on Slot and Liverpool’s progress. It is a million miles removed from the actual contract processes that will be playing out behind the scenes.
Ultimately, it’s hard to imagine that this will come down to much more than numbers. Liverpool is one of the best teams in the world, and if it is willing to match what is on offer elsewhere, it will stand a very good chance of retaining its top talent.
But in today’s football landscape, the agents of Salah, Van Dijk and Alexander-Arnold have the wealth of entire nation-states to leverage against the club. Liverpool simply cannot outspend certain teams, particularly those in Saudi Arabia, and a line therefore has to be drawn somewhere.
The club must decide how much it can stretch its upper limit, and the three players must decide whether Liverpool’s upper limit is enough. Contrary to what has been claimed, that decision process remains ongoing — Van Dijk has already told us as much.
