The contractual situation at Liverpool, hanging over Arne Slot’s promising start to life like a disquieting portrait, needs fixing – and soon.
With the turn of the calendar year, Liverpool’s star triumvirate, Virgil van Dijk, Trent Alexander-Arnold and Mohamed Salah, will all be able to chat with clubs from overseas and begin negotiations toward signing pre-contract deals.
Not ideal and very concerning, although it’s important to remember that Michael Edwards and Richard Hughes are probably aware of the quandary and are apt to find a solution, preferably one that keeps these brilliant players on Anfield’s books.
It might not happen though, and sadly, Liverpool’s iconic team under Klopp’s wing is fading away, reduced to only a handful who could too be gone by the end of the campaign.
Liverpool are changing
Klopp’s exit back at the end of the 2023/24 season is probably the most shocking bit of upheaval for the red Merseysiders in many years, but it has also emphasised a lot of change over the past few years.
The former Liverpool manager is lionised for good reason, having taken the club from its fallen position and raised it back to a place of power at the summit of the continent’s football. Plenty of silverware was won along the way but Liverpool achieved something great, almost indescribable, across those unforgettable nine years.
Should Alexander-Arnold, Van Dijk and Salah all leave, the Anfield side would only hold a fraction of the team that won the FA Cup and Carabao Cup two years ago while coming agonisingly close to completing an unprecedented quadruple, missing out on the Premier League and Champions League at the final stages, losing both in the space of a week.
(GK) Alisson Becker
(RB) Trent Alexander-Arnold
(CB) Ibrahima Konate
(CB) Virgil van Dijk
(LB) Andy Robertson
(DM) Fabinho
(CM) Thiago Alcantara
(CM) Jordan Henderson
(RW) Mohamed Salah
(LW) Luis Diaz
(CF) Sadio Mane
The entire midfield has gone and so too has Sadio Mane. Roberto Firmino and Naby Keita were also introduced off the bench against Los Blancos on that rueful evening in Paris.
Should the discussed trio be plying their trade in red for the final term, the lifeblood of Klopp’s reign will be well and truly gone as Slot leads Liverpool into its second year with him at the helm – especially since Giorgi Mamardashvili was signed for £25m plus add-ons this summer with a long-term plan in place to succeed Alisson Becker between the sticks.
Liverpool will need to throw the kitchen sink at convincing this trio to remain at the club, but for 26-year-old Alexander-Arnold, he’ll want to be paid a pretty penny indeed given Real Madrid are interested in snapping him up.
Alexander-Arnold’s on £180k per week so he’s not exactly short-changed, but he’ll want to eclipse the earnings of the rest of the squad and indeed that of the former stars, such as Thiago Alcantara, who was in that Champions League final line up and can only go down as a misfire, given the money involved in signing him.
Thiago Alcantara's Liverpool career
Thiago is one of the most illustrious and influential players of his generation, and Liverpool needed to add some flair to their midfield in 2020, consolidating their position in the Premier League after winning the previous edition.
And thus, Bayern Munich’s Thiago was snapped up for a £20m fee, ending a trophy-laden career in Germany. It was a statement signing for a recognised ‘world-class’ player, highlighting the journey that Klopp had taken the club on.
Across four campaigns, the 46-cap Spain star won the FA Cup and Carabao Cup during the aforementioned 2022/23 campaign and clinched the subsequent Community Shield, only managing to complete 98 displays in total.
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He carried natural talent to the nth degree, but injuries, a theme throughout his distinguished career, overcame him on English shores – perhaps Klopp’s gegenpressing brand was simply too much for his brittle-boned, injury-prone frame.
How much Thiago cost Liverpool
Thiago, who was 29 upon joining Liverpool, didn’t cost all that much – £20m (rising to £25m) is not the biggest sum for one of the most naturally talented midfielders in the game.
The severity of Thiago’s injury issues across his four seasons at the club was such that he never completed over 20 Premier League matches in a single term.
Pundit Michael Owen praised the 33-year-old for his “staggering” ability with a ball, surpassing most everyone else, but so too was the length of his injury problems. Especially when considering the fact that Liverpool paid him £200k per week, placing him above everyone at the club except Salah and Van Dijk.
Now retired after his Liverpool deal expired, fans can look back at Thiago’s time at the club with respect and no small degree of reverence, for he was truly something special. However, chances to showcase the full flight of his talent were few and far between, with the salary he took home totalling £38m across the four years of his stay.
Combine that with the fee, rising to £25m, and it becomes clear that Thiago cost FSG over £60m in total despite being non-existent across his final term and struggling for fitness before that point. Perhaps, harking back to earlier, it’s fair for Alexander-Arnold to demand a hefty pay rise if he is to forgo Real Madrid’s interest and pen his long-term future to his boyhood club.
Indeed, his final season as a Red permitted him only five minutes of competitive football, arriving as a late substitute against Arsenal in the Premier League and sustaining a recurrence of a muscular issue that would leave him shackled to the sidelines for the remainder of the campaign, leading to his contract’s expiry.
Perhaps the most painful part of Thiago’s Liverpool career is that it could have been something extraordinary. Had fitness levels held up, the Spaniard could have been the orchestrator in an illustrious era, Liverpool 2.0, and added another layer of cement to his claim as one of the greatest midfielders of his generation.
For that matter, it’s a real shame that he missed out on Slot’s football: he would have been perfect in the nub of the midfield. Alas, for such costly expenses, Liverpool can only rue the deal, for Thiago fell by the wayside.
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