Gary Neville has warned Liverpool that it could face a black hole of $320M-plus at the end of this season if Virgil van Dijk and Mohamed Salah both leave for nothing. Real Madrid, it appears, is confident of wrapping up a deal for Trent Alexander-Arnold.
All three key Liverpool men are out of contract when the final nine matches of the campaign are concluded as things stand, with Alexander-Arnold having long been courted by the Spanish giant. Losing him alone would be a blow for Arne Slot, but letting more players leave with no money coming in as a transfer fee would only increase the pressure on what could be a huge summer.
“At the end of the season, it will leave Liverpool a huge hole if those three players leave on a free,” Neville said on the Stick To Football podcast, brought to you by Sky Bet.
“They won’t have the money to replace them, and you could argue there is a quarter of a billion pounds in those three. You’re talking about one of the best strikers in Europe, one of the best center-halves in Europe, and one of the best right-backs in Europe.
“Even as good as Liverpool have been in recruitment, that is a quarter-of-a-billion-pound hole. They’ve been good at recruitment so they could replace them, but that is a hell of a thing for Arne Slot to have to deal with.”
All three players have been vital in Slot’s first season on Merseyside, which appears to be set to conclude with a Premier League title at the first time of asking. But there could be plenty of churn among the roster this summer — and Neville says letting Alexander-Arnold get this close to the end of his contract is “unforgivable”.
“Three of the best players in the world have got contracts running down, but Liverpool have done a great job of managing that? I’m sorry, I can’t accept that,” Neville said.
(Image: Photo by Jan Kruger/Getty Images)
“Roy [Keane], your contract ran down at Manchester United but when you first did your cruciate, the club could have come to you and offered you a healthy contract at that point and probably got you cheaper through believing in you.
“So, Liverpool, a couple of years ago around the time where Van Dijk was going through a patch where he was teetering a little bit and Salah was there — they looked at them and thought, ‘We’ll wait with you’. The players are probably holding that against them now.
“With Trent, it’s unforgivable. Whether you’re going through a turbulence in the boardroom or not, if you’re the owner of the club and you look at Trent two years ago, even if you have disruption in your sporting department, you look at him and think, ‘We’ve got to sign him up, he’s one of our own’.”
Liverpool.com says: If Alexander-Arnold wanted to explore a move to Real Madrid, it was always going to need to be a free transfer. That is how the Spanish giant works. For that reason, if his decision was to try something new, it wouldn’t have made a difference had Liverpool negotiated earlier. With Van Dijk and Salah, it might be different — but the outcome there is yet to become clear.
