Could Liverpool really lose three star players next summer?

Liverpool could lose three of their best players — Mohamed Salah, Virgil van Dijk and Trent Alexander-Arnold — for nothing in less than 100 days. That is the harsh reality of the contract chess game now being played at Anfield, as time truly runs out.

Salah (32), Van Dijk (33) and Alexander-Arnold (25) are all out of contract at the end of this season and can therefore negotiate with a non-English club as a free agent at the end of this season from 1 January 2025. Each of the trio has a different value to the team and the three are at different stages of their careers, but the way Liverpool have rolled the dice has left them inextricably linked to such an extent that the future of whoever is sorted out first will have a direct impact on what happens to the others.

Liverpool’s owners, Fenway Sports Group (FSG), and their football operations team, led by football CEO Michael Edwards, know exactly what is at stake in the coming weeks. The silence from Liverpool’s boardroom over each individual contract situation is not unusual and makes sense from a business perspective, but it has created uncertainty and anxiety among supporters – anxiety over the potential loss of up to three star players, but also over the club’s inability to resolve the situation months earlier. It has also left a vacuum that has been filled by statements from each player, which only adds to the sense of a club gambling with high stakes.

Van Dijk was the first to go public with his situation in August, saying there was “no change” in the lack of a contract offer from the club. Salah followed the Dutch defender in September when, after scoring in a 3-0 win over Manchester United, he also revealed that Liverpool had not yet opened talks over a new deal.

“Nobody at the club has spoken to me about a new contract, so I’ll just play this last season and see what happens at the end of the season,” Salah said. “It’s not up to me, but nobody has spoken to me about a contract at the club. We’ll see.”

With Van Dijk and Salah, Liverpool’s delay in negotiating new contracts is perhaps understandable. With both players in their 30s and among the club’s highest earners, the club must make a calculation about their value in the coming years.

How long Van Dijk and Salah can continue to perform as world-class players — and whether the club can confidently offer them a one-, two- or even three-year contract without risking locking them out at the end of the deal — is the dilemma facing FSG. In recent years, with star players like Sadio Mane, Roberto Firmino and Jordan Henderson, FSG has erred on the side of caution and shipped them all out before the downturn set in. The records of Mane, Firmino and Henderson since leaving Liverpool have proven the club right to offload them in both cases.

Salah and Van Dijk are on a different level to Mane, Firmino and Henderson though, in terms of their status as club legends and in the sense that they are still performing at the highest level. But by allowing these players’ contracts to run to their final year, Liverpool have lost control and the only way to regain it now is to offer contracts, in terms of length and finances, that the club would not normally be willing to hand out.

Alexander-Arnold’s situation is different and has the greatest chance of becoming a problem for both the player and the club.

At 25 — he turns 26 on October 7 — Alexander-Arnold is entering his prime, meaning Liverpool are running no risk of sanctioning a lucrative long-term contract for a player the club has developed and grown up supporting Liverpool. But the team also faces a catch-22 with Alexander-Arnold. If they seal his deal first, Van Dijk and Salah would, not unreasonably, expect a similar salary deal. If the club settles with either Salah or Van Dijk first, that would give Alexander-Arnold’s advisers a starting point for their deal.

Still, the long-running speculation surrounding the England international’s link with Real Madrid persists, and Alexander-Arnold’s reluctance to ignore the prospect of a move is a useful negotiating tactic. However, it is unlikely to go down well with supporters who quickly lost their affection for previous homegrown stars — namely Steve McManaman and Michael Owen — when it became clear that both were prepared to let their contracts expire to join Real.

McManaman left for Real as a free agent in 1999, and five years later Owen made a £8million move to the Santiago Bernabéu when Liverpool decided to avoid the risk of him leaving for nothing 12 months later.

Arne Slot’s comments this week about Alexander-Arnold being a “good defender” but one who “needs to work on his concentration” could yet be a hint that the new manager is prepared to consider a future without a player who has received as much criticism for his defending as he has praised for his attacking abilities. If that is the case, Liverpool are past the point of no return with Alexander-Arnold in terms of securing a significant transfer fee for him.

When asked about his situation after Saturday’s 3-0 win over Bournemouth, it seemed clear that Alexander-Arnold will now either sign a new contract or leave as a free agent.

“I want to be a Liverpool player this season, that’s what I will say,” Alexander-Arnold said when asked about his future. “I’ve been at the club for 20 years now; I’ve signed four or five contract extensions; none of them have been played out in public, and none will be.

“The most important thing is always trophies, if I’m honest. I want to win trophies, I’m a player who is very motivated by trophies and winning things and being elite. So that’s probably the most important factor (in determining my future) of all.”

The big problem for Liverpool with Salah, Van Dijk and Alexander-Arnold is that time is running out and they can see all three really walk out the door as free agents next summer. The longer it goes on, the more of a distraction it will become for everyone involved, but the players can only win in this situation. They either get big new contracts at Liverpool or take advantage of free agency next year.

The positive picture that Liverpool will have in the coming months is much harder to predict.