Alisson Becker of Liverpool during a training session. (Photo by Andrew Powell/Liverpool FC via Getty Images)
After confirmation of the impending departures of Mohamed Salah and Andy Robertson this summer, the Liverpool future of Alisson Becker is now in the spotlight.
The Reds goalkeeper has been one of the very best stoppers in world football over his eight years at club, but with one year left on his contract and [Juventus making it clear that they would like to bring him back to Serie A](https://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/virgil-van-dijk-makes-alisson-33856684), where he used to play for Roma, there is a growing sense that he could be about to depart.
Should Liverpool be open to allowing him to leave though? Here's what our writers think.
For those of a certain vintage who have observed Liverpool in any capacity in recent years, Alisson Becker is the greatest goalkeeper they have ever seen at Anfield.
The Brazilian shot-stopper, when he does come to eventually call time on his glittering career on Merseyside, will go down alongside vaunted names like Ray Clemence and Bruce Grobbelaar as the most celebrated glovesmen in Liverpool history.
Where Alisson ranks on that particular list will make for a healthy debate in the local watering holes around Anfield one day. However, how much more evidence the current No.1 is allowed to submit for his case remains to be seen now.
Links to Juventus are genuine and the Serie A giants are determined to take him to Turin this summer, despite Liverpool exercising their right to trigger a one-year extension in his contract a few weeks ago.
That action perhaps preserved value more than anything else, meaning Juve will be forced to hand over a transfer fee for Alisson should the Reds star seek pastures new and a return to Italy in the coming weeks.
Liverpool, though, are unlikely to fetch a huge sum for a 33-year-old goalkeeper, particularly if it is not a club based in Saudi Arabia, who have previously shown interest in the Reds' keeper.
Alisson, as recently as last month, had yet to make his mind up on his future, it's thought, and Liverpool will likely be reluctant to shove him to the exit door given the amount of experience, quality and leadership that is already heading that way via Mohamed Salah and Andy Robertson's end-of-season departures.
But injuries have hit hard in recent years. Since the start of the 2023/24 term, Alisson has missed over 25% of Premier League fixtures and the deal to bring in £29m Giorgi Mamardashvili - agreed two years ago and completed last summer - was clearly designed for a post-Alisson world at Anfield.
Liverpool's data models may conclude that selling Alisson is the most sensible course of action, even if it is another heavy-hearted prospect for supporters to consider. It brings in a fee and gets a high-earning, ageing and injury-prone star off a remarkably bloated wage bill.
To many, Alisson is the greatest goalkeeper in a generation at Liverpool but his time on Merseyside may be nearing an end.
It's not nice is it, getting older? Knees start to creak and backs start to ache. Stuff that didn't seem that far away before suddenly seems like it might as well be in another postcode. _ALL_ the way down the stairs you say? Blimey.
None of this matters to Alisson Becker just yet obviously. He is one of the finest specimens of human you're ever going to see, and as a goalkeeper he will be able to go on playing at a high level for a lot longer than many outfield players even as he hits his mid 30s.
He is ageing though. We all are obviously. But he is ageing in football terms.
There have been the frequent hamstring injuries which have struck in the past three seasons, placing Caoimhin Kelleher in goal for spells in the last two campaigns and Giorgi Mamardashvili, and then latterly Freddie Woodman, in this one.
There has been an ageing in performance terms too. Alisson's Premier League save percentage is 63% this season. Is that good? It's not bad, but in the previous four seasons before this one it was 76%, 71%, 73% and 72%. He's not been helped by performances around him of course, but there is a clear drop off there.
And so with one year left on his contract and after a season which has been a struggle for everyone in both performance and psychology, the goalkeeper and Liverpool find themselves here. And as with Mohamed Salah and Andy Robertson, departures aren't nice but they are eventually inevitable.
Alisson won't get a new Liverpool contract so does he go this summer or next? You begin to suspect it could be the former.
Juventus, and Italy, would be a good move for him and allow him to play in a league which isn't as obsessed with long throws and corners, thereby helping him rest that troublesome hamstring a bit more.
Like Salah and Robertson it will be a real shame to wave him off, but it might just be time for another one of Liverpool's very best to move on.