Image Credits: Imago Images
Liverpool’s season is delicately poised, and the stakes around Champions League qualification could hardly be higher. After four wins in a row and a feeling that Arne Slot’s men have turned a corner, the 2-1 defeat to Wolves on Tuesday night was a sobering reality check.
With margins so fine and multiple clubs bunched together behind Arsenal and Manchester City, every dropped point now feels like it carries double the weight.
BBC reported that failure to qualify could leave Liverpool as much as £120m worse off once lost UEFA prize money, matchday income and commercial bonuses are factored in. The article also pointed out how stark the gap is between the two main European competitions, noting that Liverpool’s Champions League run in 2024‑25 generated more than three times the UEFA revenue of their previous season’s Europa League campaign.
Now Virgil van Dijk, speaking to the media after Tuesday night’s defeat including the Liverpool Echo, has admitted that failure to qualify for Europe’s premier competition will have damaging consequences in the transfer market.
“One hundred per cent [it will have impact],” Van Dijk said. “The stakes are very high. Listen, if you play for Liverpool, it’s always been like that. It’s down to us, together with our fans, to get the results we need to get into the Champions League.
“We’re also still playing in the Champions League and the FA Cup this season and trying to make it successful. Now the decisive period starts. We have to just go for it. We have to take this on the chin. No matter how hard it is to take.”
“Either we get it and we deserve it or we don’t get it and we don’t deserve it. We have to go through our difficulties to get consistency. It’s part of the process of this team. Everyone wants to win.”
For a club that has just posted record revenues and built its squad on the assumption of regular Champions League participation, it could be the difference between Arne Slot keeping his job or not.
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