Mohamed Salah and Virgil van Dijk are both understood to be set to sign two-year contract extensions at Liverpool, keeping them at the club until the 2027.
This season’s off-field Liverpool chat has been dominated by the futures of Salah, Van Dijk and Trent Alexander-Arnold, ahead of the expiration of their current contracts on June 30.
Finally, with the season entering its closing stages, it sounds as though the futures of all three players will shortly be resolved: Salah and Van Dijk are expected to stay, while Alexander-Arnold is expected to leave.
Alexander-Arnold is set to join Real Madrid on a free transfer, bringing his 21-year association with the club he joined as a young boy to an end.
Liverpool tends to tread carefully when handing contract extensions to players over 30, which goes some way to explaining why the negotiations with Salah and Van Dijk have taken so long.
Salah originally wanted a three-year deal but a compromise has seemingly been reached. Both players will be 35 when their prospective new deals expire, although Salah will have only just turned 35, while Van Dijk will be a few days away from his 36th birthday.
Van Dijk hinted that a new deal was not far away after Sunday’s defeat by Fulham in the Premier League. Speaking to reporters in the Craven Cottage mixed zone, the 33-year-old said: “There is progress, yes.” When asked whether that meant he would sign an extension, Van Dijk replied: “I don’t know, we’ll see.”
He added: “Listen, these are internal discussions and we’ll see. I love the club, I love the fans and they were there for us again [at Craven Cottage]. We wanted to reward them but I ask them to be there again on Sunday [against West Ham] and make the stadium an amazing venue like always for us.”
Salah, meanwhile, has not spoken publicly about his future for several months, prompting concern among some fans that he might be on the brink of leaving amid interest from clubs in Saudi Arabia, so the development around his future is hugely encouraging.
On the field, the Egyptian is enjoying an excellent season, having registered 32 goals and 22 assists for the Reds, but he is without a goal from open play since February 23.
Despite his star man’s struggles of late, Liverpool head coach Arne Slot is not concerned by Salah’s drop in form. Following Liverpool’s loss to Fulham on Sunday, he said: “Maybe he (Salah) should see it as a compliment [that people are talking about the goal drought] because his numbers were not normal [when he was scoring a lot]. The good thing about Mo is he knows what kind of player he is. Mo will show up again, I don’t worry about that.”
