Former Liverpool CEO Peter Moore reflects on how the club handled the contract impasses of Trent Alexander-Arnold, Mohamed Salah and Virgil van Dijk
Former Liverpool CEO Peter Moore at the Soccerex Miami in November 2024
(Image: Soccerex Miami)
Former CEO Peter Moore has explained Liverpool's approach towards extending the contracts of Virgil van Dijk and Mohamed Salah, saying the club were determined to avoid "drama" over the situation.
And the former Reds chief also outlined his belief that Trent Alexander-Arnold will have told head coach Arne Slot of his decision to move to Real Madrid at the start of last season, months before his switch was eventually confirmed.
The futures of Van Dijk, Salah and Alexander-Arnold were subplots that dominated the discourse throughout the campaign but the team itself were not distracted by the speculation as they cantered to the Premier League title, eventually winning it by 10 points and with four games to spare.
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Van Dijk and Salah signed two-year extensions in April, which came a few weeks after Alexander-Arnold is understood to have informed Slot of his plan to move to Madrid as a free agent.
The England international eventually departed for £10m after the La Liga side paid a premium to sign him in time for this month's Club World Cup in the United States.
And speaking to talkSPORT, Moore, who served as CEO between 2017 and 2020, has detailed how he believes the club would have handled the issues behind the scenes.
“I've been gone a few years but the issue is Trent, Mo and Virgil coming to the end and the PR issues," Moore said. "You have the agents yapping in the background trying to put pressure on the club. All of that, Liverpool handled very well.
"Ramy Abbas is very seasoned now, Mo is his No.1 client, how do we announce things that don't put Trent under pressure for announcement and how does Virgil, as the captain, announce things? All of those have to go together.
“It was pretty clear he said to Arne at the start of the season that I'm out of here but I'm going to give you everything now because he's such a good kid. What do I know, but Arne probably said I need you to bring Conor [Bradley] along because this kid is going to be 30-35 games a season in your position. Virgil and Mo, I think, knew what was going on so were nonplussed about the drama. This is where social media kicks in.
“Liverpool has always been this way and we arrogantly call it the 'Liverpool way' where we're just going to get business done, there's not going to be a lot of drama and, when I was there, there was a conversation with agents that if you're going to start doing this to the media to try to manipulate the situation or change the narrative to advantage your client, we're not going to give in."
Moore also reflected on Salah's decision to speak to reporters after November's 3-2 win over Southampton at St Mary's, branding the rare post-match interview as "weird" for being out of character for the Egypt captain.
He added: “I know his agent, I know Mo. It was with the mixed media, which was weird. I think Ramy, his agent, probably said go and have a word, kick things along but all's well that ends well.”