Is now the time for highly-rated duo Giovanni Leoni and Jeremy Jacquet to make an impression and cement their Liverpool places for the next decade? We take a look...
Jeremy Jacquet and Giovanni Leoni are regarded as two of the best young centre-back prospects in the world but Liverpool may require them to become starters straight away next season
Jeremy Jacquet and Giovanni Leoni are regarded as two of the best young centre-back prospects in the world but Liverpool may require them to become starters straight away next season
View Image
Liverpool captain Virgil van Dijk's contract will expire at the end of the 2026/27 season, possibly bringing to a close one of the finest careers in the club's modern history. For new head coach Andoni Iraola, this will present a big headache.
Van Dijk was immediately influential from his 2018 arrival on Merseyside in a then-record £75m deal for a defender, his dominance and leadership transforming a previously-porous backline overnight, and he has won almost everything there is to win during his eight-and-a-half year stint at Anfield.
But nothing lasts forever. The skipper, for all of his unflappability, is no more immortal than any of the club's other legends.
As one of this city's finest actors once said: "It is the end - but the moment has been prepared for."
The future is now
Whether or not Van Dijk's time at the club comes to a close next summer, Liverpool have prepared for that eventuality with the signing of Giovanni Leoni and Jeremy Jacquet - two of Europe's most promising young centre-halves.
Leoni arrived from Parma in the summer of 2025; Jacquet, who agreed to the move six months earlier, will link up with the Reds this summer having graduated from the prestigious academy of Stade Rennais.
Both have the chance to step up immediately. Liverpool, by all accounts, have elected to delay the signing of a direct replacement for Ibrahima Konate and will assess their current options while pursuing their priority targets for other departments of the team.
With neither involved in the World Cup, Jacquet and Leoni are expected to be present from day one of Iraola's first pre-season and will be given the opportunity to prove themselves to the new manager in the hopes of cementing a place alongside van Dijk for the new season.
They may be the future partnership that the Reds' next great team is built upon but, for now, no greater motivation is required.
Speaking to VivoAzzurro TV before his Liverpool debut in September last year, Leoni was asked to name his idol in football.
"It has always been Van Dijk," Leoni said. "Now I can play alongside him and share the locker room, he is an exceptional person and a phenomenal player."
Jacquet has spoken about the captain in similar terms since his £60m move was agreed. Asked by Ouest-France if it was an easy decision to sign for the Reds, the 20-year-old's motivations were clear.
"I won't say [the decision] was a quick one, because I took my time with this big step, but I quickly saw myself at Liverpool," Jacquet said.
"At Chelsea, I felt there were quite a lot of people [in my position]. Whereas at Liverpool, apart from the fact that Virgil van Dijk is nearing the end of his career, training with him is going to be huge.
"He's going to teach me so much."
For all of the prestige and glory wrapped up in the mythos of Liverpool, it cannot be overstated how much of an impact generational players like Van Dijk can have on attracting others to the club.
Players spoke in the same hushed tones about Steven Gerrard as they do about the Netherlands captain. For all of the lazy criticism that is fired in his direction from his home country by former professionals more concerned about their take going viral, van Dijk is a player that every young defender wants to play alongside and learn from.
The daunting prospect of succeeding one of the game's greatest-ever defenders could put some players off, but Leoni and Jacquet have embraced that pressure.
At centre-back, where age and quality tend to correlate deeper into a player's career than other positions, the pair know full well that playing alongside Van Dijk - even if just for one season - will make them better players for the remainder of their careers, and better-suited to taking on the same responsibility once he is gone.
The question, of course, is what they can offer in the here and now.
Who will partner van Dijk?
Joe Gomez is now Van Dijk's partner by default, though that framing does a disservice to the former Charlton Athletic man's quality and patience over 11 long years at the club.
Gomez is a tremendous footballer at his best, and he won't turn 30 until May next year. From breaking into Brendan Rodgers' starting XI as a left-back, to partnering Van Dijk in the centre for 21 games of Liverpool's finest league season of the modern era in 2019/20, to the Winston Wolf role of problem solver he has played so commendably over the last few seasons, the England international has been the unsung hero of Liverpool's success this century.
The only problem has always been his fitness. Or rather, his vulnerability to injury. It's ultimately a fruitless exercise, but it's hard not to wonder how different Gomez's career could have been had he not suffered an ACL injury on England Under-21s duty just two months after his arrival at Anfield in October 2015.
Complications resulting from that injury lasted long after the event, and Gomez would not make another Premier League appearance until August of 2017.
If anything, it is a mark of his resilience that he has gone on to reach the heights he has in his career since, making 274 appearances for Liverpool and 15 for his country.
Nor is it too late for him to be a genuine first-choice centre-back, even at the Reds. Sadly, though, three hamstring injuries since December 2024 - a total of 157 days out, not including other minor injuries during that time - warns us not to expect miracles.
In this context, the door could not possibly be more open for Jacquet and Leoni.
Jacquet is probably the more likely of the two to stake his claim ahead of Gomez. The Frenchman's standout aerial ability - he won 75.5% of his aerial duels for Rennes this season - makes him a close match for the profile of the departed Konate, though his progressive use of the ball and calmness under pressure also suggests he has the potential to one day play Van Dijk's all-encompassing role, too.
In a grimly amusing reflection of Liverpool's own luckless run of defensive injuries, Jacquet dislocated his shoulder days after agreeing to the move and wouldn't play for Rennes again - yet he retains the advantage of having played more recently than Leoni, who missed the entire season after tearing his ACL on his Reds debut against Southampton in the League Cup.
But what a debut it was. Starting alongside Gomez, Leoni looked every bit the part in his 81 minutes against Southampton. He won all three of his aerial duels, completed 88 of his 91 attempted passes and made three interceptions.
Leoni's performance was as huge as his towering 6ft 5in frame, and it was a cruel blow to be struck down after such a promising start to life at Liverpool.
It is vital that caution is exercised on his return. The Reds do not want a repeat of what happened to Gomez, who looked to be a potential world-beater when he, like Leoni, began his own career in red at the tender age of 18.
Patience is key
Liverpool's decision-makers would be wise to remember that a world-class centre-back is not made overnight. At the age of 18, Van Dijk himself was released from his first club, Willem II, without ever having been offered a professional contract.
At the time, he was working as a pot-washer and was overlooked as a professional footballer because he had "too many limitations".
It took scout Martin Koeman, the father of another legendary Dutch centre-back, to spot van Dijk's potential. Within a year, he had made his professional debut, played in Europe and scored his first professional goals for Groningen.
Even then, Van Dijk would suffer more setbacks. After his 20th birthday, a previously-unnoticed medical condition - involving appendicitis, peritonitis and kidney poisoning - saw Van Dijk suffer a life-threatening medical emergency, even signing a will in hospital.
He lost 35lbs as a result of the incident and yet he still returned to the pitch after eventually making a full recovery. PSV Eindhoven and Ajax would both turn him down, though, before he eventually joined Celtic a few weeks before his 22nd birthday.
It took two seasons at Celtic and another two at Southampton before Van Dijk was subject to interest from top European clubs. Six months after Liverpool tried to sign him in the summer of 2017, he eventually arrived at Anfield - at the age of 26.
A world-class centre-back is not made overnight.
Would Van Dijk have thrived had he been scooped up at 18 or 20 by a Liverpool, by a Chelsea, had he been born fifteen years later and made his first forays into the professional game under the glare of data analysis? Perhaps.
Life events and human beings' development are rarely that predictable, though. The truth is that you can have all of the talent in the world, the longest legs you want and the physique of a god, but a world-class centre-back is not made until he has played enough football to know exactly what an attacker is going to do before he does it.
Some will reach that before others, yes, but few players' paths are ever completely linear.
Another option required
The modern transfer game seems to increasingly resemble high-stakes gambling, with clubs involved in a race to the bottom to find the best prospects at ever-younger ages.
Manchester United's Leny Yoro and Real Madrid's Dean Huijsen, both players linked with Liverpool before they signed Jacquet and Leoni, are good examples of how this approach can be flawed.
Neither should be written off - far from it - but both were arguably lauded far too much, much too young, before either had had the opportunity to fully develop and cut mistakes out of their games.
As such, since joining big clubs, they have both come under increased scrutiny and have at times faced intense criticism that could threaten to hinder their development.
Liverpool's recruitment team have identified traits that give Jacquet and Leoni the potential to rank among the very best in their position, but they, too, will make mistakes along the way as they hone their craft.
To ensure they develop sustainably both mentally and technically, it would be wise not to put too much responsibility on their shoulders too young. This should mean identifying a more senior player who can be relied upon to play week-in, week-out, and to be challenged for a place by the up-and-comers.
Both have shown plenty of promise but neither has yet made 60 appearances at senior level. It is essential for their development that they are given the freedom to iron out any mistakes over the next 60, without being relied upon as the Reds' only options in the case of the unthinkable - an injury to van Dijk.
Jacquet and Leoni could be Liverpool's next great defensive pairing - but it is simply too soon for that time to be now.