The latest Liverpool contract news on Mohamed Salah, Virgil van Dijk and Trent Alexander-Arnold
Comments
Sport
Trent Alexander-Arnold, Virgil Van Dijk and Mohamed Salah embrace
Trent Alexander-Arnold, Virgil van Dijk and Mohamed Salah are yet to sign contract extensions with Liverpool for beyond the summer
(Image: Nick Taylor/Liverpool FC/Liverpool FC via Getty Images)
In little over three months time, Mohamed Salah, Virgil van Dijk and Trent Alexander Arnold could all be ex-Liverpool players. That is so long as the club do not win what is rapidly becoming a last-minute race to tie the trio down to new contracts.
Over the course of the 2024/25 each have taken such a huge amount of the media's attention on Liverpool, simply owing to their importance in the team. Now there is the added element of thinking as a collective - how are the Reds exactly going to change their squad next season?
Article continues below
With other teammates part of the speculation on who will arrive at or leave Anfield this summer, surely anything that the club do hinges on whether their star trio remain on Merseyside or not.
READ MORE: Joy for Liverpool midfielder after national side becomes first to qualify for 2026 World CupREAD MORE: I was in the Liverpool end at Wembley - we need to do two things to get our identity back
And that is why during the March international break the situation - still without any significant breakthroughs of public knowledge - has hit yet another precarious point. Here, the ECHO summarises the latest media talk around the futures of Salah, Van Dijk and Alexander-Arnold.
Mohamed Salah
Salah last renewed his contract with Liverpool in summer 2022, adding another three years. This is how we have got to this point.
Of the trio involved he has been most vocal about the scenario at different stages of the season, last expressing disappointment three weeks ago that he had not personally been presented with an offer yet - and not for the first time.
The Athletic's David Ornstein, in a Q&A on Thursday, was asked if there has been any progress since the player's last interview, to which he responded: "Not that I'm personally aware of.
"Which doesn't mean there aren't any, it may just be that it hasn't come to the media/public attention yet.
"I just know Liverpool have been optimistic for some time that they will reach an agreement because, ultimately, they want Salah to stay and there is a belief that he is happy and would like the same. Now, of course, the numbers will need to be right (on what we think is a proposed two-year extension) and clearly that has not been easy... but there has so far been nothing to indicate talks have stopped or are not moving in a positive direction.
"Furthermore, when you make checks on rumours/reports/suggestions that Salah might be set for a move to the Saudi Pro League or PSG, for example, you tend to receive pretty immediate and firm denials.
"I also don't sense the Champions League and EFL Cup final defeats will have any bearing on the outcome or timings. The same, I suspect, with Van Dijk and Alexander-Arnold."
Virgil van Dijk
Van Dijk last extended his own contract in 2021, adding another four years. In the time that has passed he has assumed captaincy of the club though it has not prevented the situation reaching this strenuous point.
Most recently fears emerged that maybe Paris Saint-Germain would try to tempt the central defender into their lucrative clutches after he was seen talking with the French club's chairman Nasser Al-Khelaifi and sporting director Luis Campos behind the scenes after they had knocked the Reds out of the Champions League at Anfield.
However, PSG firmly denied this was the case themselves.
And Ornstein, again in his Q&A for The Athletic, was queried about Van Dijk to PSG rumours.
"All parties playing down Van Dijk to PSG. Liverpool remain confident that he will extend at Anfield," he positively responded.
Trent Alexander-Arnold
Alexander-Arnold last extended his contract in 2021, also adding another four years to his stay at Anfield. Alongside Van Dijk's captaincy he was elevated to vice-captain but again, he too stands on track to leave without a resolution being found.
Of the three players, his future has prompted the most speculation as, at 26 years of age, his so-called prime years are ahead of him and he may yet decide a new challenge is in order rather than stamping down legend status with his boyhood club.
Real Madrid interest has persisted through Spanish media rumours over the course of the season and it came to the fore when the club actually approached Liverpool willing to sign the player for a fee in January.
They were rebuffed and could still resort to his free signing on July 1, 2025.
With that, the latest speculation from Spain's AS is that the full-back's move is '99 percent done'. They claim all personal arrangements are in order, only his signature on a contract is missing for him to become a Real Madrid player in what would be a worrying outcome for the Reds.