Empire of the Kop
·02 de dezembro de 2024
Empire of the Kop
·02 de dezembro de 2024
Liverpool and Arne Slot are in dreamland after having vanquished both Real Madrid and Manchester City in the space of a week.
A 2-0 scoreline was enough to see off both the champions of Europe and England as the Reds’ Dutch head coach secured his 17th and 18th win of the 2024/25 campaign.
For those not keeping count – that’s 18 wins out of 20 games played (across all competitions) this term.
It’s fair to imagine that rival fans have been left bitterly disappointed by the total lack of a transitionary period under the former Feyenoord boss.
On current form, the Merseysiders are strong favourites to head into the New Year at the top of the Premier League (and Champions League) summit.
Even so, that’s not to suggest the Liverpool party couldn’t be spoiled in other ways.
(Photo by Carl Recine/Getty Images)
It won’t have escaped the notice of the fanbase that the contract sagas surrounding Trent Alexander-Arnold, Virgil van Dijk and Mo Salah have still (sigh) yet to be resolved.
There was some suggestion that our Dutchman’s current talks were nearing a conclusion, though the No.4 has since made clear that there was nothing in the way of a significant update to share.
“There is no change at all, there is no update at all, there is no news for the outside world. So I have nothing to share,” the former Southampton star told Viaplay (via Liverpool.com).
“There is nothing at all, it is all untrue.”
Liverpool are understood to be working hard to try and renew our No.66’s terms but this has been described as an ‘ongoing live situation that will need to be decided in 2025 or sooner’.
Likewise, our Egyptian King’s very public comments on his future post-Southampton highlight that the club is still a way off from getting all three key men to put pen to paper on fresh terms.
Given the ambiguity around the trio’s futures, you could forgive some for assuming the odds of all three players extending their stay at Anfield are somewhat low.
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There’s a very real possibility that at least one of the trio in question is forced to seek pastures new.
“Forced” might be less applicable when it comes to Alexander-Arnold, of course, given Real Madrid’s well-documented transfer interest in the fullback. It’s certainly not an appalling potential destination for the vice-captain were he to end his Liverpool stay in 2025.
Whilst Salah and Van Dijk, by comparison, appear far more set on the idea of staying put on the red half of Merseyside.
With the players in question free to agree pre-contract agreements on January 1 (in 30 days time), we’ll have a much clearer idea of just how committed each star is to the bold new future under Arne Slot.
Given Liverpool are evidently uhming and ahing of the finances involved around a deal for our No.11 and Trent Alexander-Arnold’s pursuit of individual glory would better align with the culture at Real Madrid, we suspect the nightmare scenario of the pair leaving in 2025 isn’t entirely unrealistic.
We still think Mo Salah would rather play the highest standard of competitive football on offer than take a pre-retirement gig with Saudi Arabia (sorry SPL). But if push comes to shove, we just don’t know whether the ludicrous finances on offer in the Middle East may be enough to turn the forward’s head.
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