Reports indicate that Liverpool has not yet reached an agreement in contract discussions with Mohamed Salah, Trent Alexander-Arnold, and Virgil van Dijk, which has understandably upset the club’s supporters.
All three players are in the last nine months of their contracts at Anfield and, as it stands, will be eligible to negotiate with foreign clubs starting January 1, potentially leaving Liverpool for free next summer.
The Times notes that Liverpool is at a standstill with Van Dijk, Alexander-Arnold, and Salah, and the choice to initiate discussions with Ibrahima Konate and Jarell Quansah regarding contract extensions was partly to avoid a repeat of the current situation involving these three key players.
Many Liverpool fans have been criticizing the club’s FSG owners on social media concerning the situation with these pivotal players. One fan stated, “Put it plainly, if FSG fail to retain Trent, Virgil and Salah, even if just one leaves, FSG must go. There is no debate. The badge and the club are way too big for FSG, John Henry and Richard Hughes. All this should’ve been done pre-season. We can’t lose any of them.”
Another fan referenced Dynasty Equity’s minority investment in the club last year, saying, “They told us that selling a portion of Liverpool FC to Dynasty Equity worth around £164 million would help us with cash flow issues. So why the hell can’t Liverpool sign a DM and renew Salah, Van Dijk, and Trent? Excuses, excuses. #FSGOUT.”
Since FSG took over in 2010, they have faced considerable criticism, although Jurgen Klopp praised the club’s owners prior to his departure at the end of last season.
“I think you could buy into it but (people say) ‘they didn’t back him enough’ and stuff like that but I never saw it that way,” Klopp stated. “I don’t know if they could have done more, but I don’t think so because we had these discussions and I never had them in public.
“I didn’t want to create the impression that we were not united. If we had a disagreement, it was internal, and publicly we presented a united front. I don’t know any other way.
“If inviting the public into our discussions would help, I would consider it, but it doesn’t. If my son asked me for 50 euros and I only had 25 to give, what can I do? I would just give him the 25. I truly believed that I understood it was our way, the Liverpool way.”
