If nothing changes between now and August, Liverpool will start next season as Premier League champions – but without arguably their three best players.

Mo Salah, Virgil van Dijk and Trent Alexander-Arnold all are out of contract in June 2025, with a significant changing of the guard looming. Although there’s still plenty of time for the trio, who starred in Sunday’s convincing 2-0 victory over Manchester City, to renew and commit their futures to Anfield, the January transfer window is on the horizon and come New Year’s Day, each of them will be allowed to sign pre-contract agreements with an overseas club.

Alexander-Arnold is a target for Real Madrid, Paris Saint-Germain have been tipped to sign Salah and Barcelona have been tentatively linked with Van Dijk. So, what should Liverpool do? Let them leave for free? Break the bank to keep them?

John Cross

Rather than be a distraction, the Liverpool contract stand-offs can be a motivation. Mo Salah is clearly angling for a new contract and therefore has to stay focused, sharp and scoring.

The Egyptian king is already in sensational form and it can only be good for Liverpool’s title chances for Salah to stay at the top of his
game. How many times have we seen it before? Players angling for a new deal. Marcus Rashford is a classic example. Gets the deal and then drops off. Mesut Ozil another. Even Salah after the last one.

So be mean for now – and keep him keen. He’s untouchable and is already looking odds-on to win the Footballer of the Year gongs. As long as players stay professional, it’s no issue. And Salah is the epitome of professionalism. I think they must keep Salah and it will come down to whether he will sign for one or demand two. I think he will stay.

It’s surely a given that Virgil van Dijk will stay. I’m sure he will stay. But I think Trent Alexander-Arnold will go. Real Madrid want him and it’s an amazing opportunity and surely no Liverpool fan will begrudge him. Especially if he leaves having won another Premier League title.

Mike Walters

Jamie Carragher was right – Liverpool is an empire built on success, not simply by paying players what they want. Salah is worth every penny of whatever they pay him, so it’s not going to be money alone that decides whether he stays or goes.

When the music stops in May, the Egyptian king may simply feel there are no more mountains left for him to conquer on Merseyside. Liverpool’s priority should be to win the title and the Champions League – in that order – and then find out who wants to stick around for the sequels next season.

But the player they need to keep most of all is Van Dijk. He’s the captain, leader and rock of Anfield. Trent Alexander-Arnold has a magnificent passing range but Conor Bradley is the heir apparent at right-back, and if Salah leaves I would go for Brentford’s Bryan Mbeumo as a like-for-like replacement.

From a safe distance, my best guess is that Salah and Trent will both be off in the summer – as champions.

Which player is the most important for Liverpool to keep? Have your say in the comments section.

Mo Salah proved his worth against Manchester City ( 
Image:
John Powell/Liverpool FC via Getty Images)

David McDonnell

Given the importance of Mo Salah, Virgil van Dijk and Trent Alexander-Arnold to Liverpool, those in charge at the club must do everything they can to keep them beyond this season. It should never have got to this stage in the first place, allowing a trio of your most influential players to enter the final year of their contracts, with no extensions agreed, particularly when all of them are still excelling for the team.

There has to be a balance, of course. Liverpool cannot just cave in to the contract demands of players and pay them what they want and hand them the length of contract they are demanding.

A compromise must be reached by all parties, but with a little over six months left on the contracts of all three, it is the players who hold the power in the negotiations, free to talk to other clubs from January 1, which puts added pressure on Liverpool to reach agreement with them on new deals or risk losing them. Salah is 32, but with the form and condition he is in, there is no reason why he can’t perform at his current level for another couple of years at least.

The same applies to Van Dijk, while Alexander-Arnold, at 26, is entering the prime of his career and is an asset Liverpool should not be letting walk away for nothing. Liverpool’s priority should be to keep Salah and Van Dijk. With Conor Bradley a more than capable replacement for Alexander-Arnold, his loss would not be as keenly felt as the other two.

David Anderson

Mohamed Salah clearly isn’t being distracted by his contract dispute with Liverpool and neither are the players, judging by the Reds’ superlative form. They are the best team in Europe, if not the world, having comfortably beaten Real Madrid and Manchester City in the space of four days.

Salah’s worth to Liverpool is obvious and they should, and are doing, all they can to hold on to him. But they should not break the bank for him and his reported demands for the same terms over three years, when he is 33 in June, appear excessive.

Salah does not want to leave Liverpool, he is just trying to cash in on his great form. There has got to be a redline in the negotiations and Liverpool have got to be prepared to say no, despite the likely outcry from the fans.

I think he will stay, as will skipper Virgil van Dijk – his is the easiest of the three contract negotiations. Trent Alexander-Arnold is the most difficult one and he says trophies will be the deciding factor for him. But winning a second Premier League title will surely go a long way to persuading him to stay at his boyhood club.

Trent Alexander-Arnold would be leaving his boyhood club ( 
Image:
Andrew Powell/Liverpool FC via Getty Images)

Mark Jones

As much as we all enjoyed Conor Bradley’s challenge on Kylian Mbappe last week, Sunday was a reminder of just what Liverpool have on their hands in Trent Alexander-Arnold. The right-back is a generational talent, one of Liverpool’s own making, and it is the situation around him which is the dominating factor in the ongoing contract drama.

The failure to tie him down to a long-term deal a couple of years ago is a genuine failure on Liverpool’s part, and as Real Madrid flutter their eyelashes at him no-one can really make a move until they know what is happening. It will be extremely tempting for Alexander-Arnold to leave, but he’s also likely to be agonising over the decision.

At 26, his next contract could well be his most lucrative, and so Virgil van Dijk and Mo Salah’s camps will be sitting quietly and waiting to see what the club offer him, because they can legitimately ask for more. At 34 and 33 respectively come the summer, it isn’t actually that unusual for a couple of veterans to be keeping their options open and to be waiting on the offer of a renewal, even if their outstanding abilities make it seem so.

Challenging Van Dijk and Salah to earn their new deals is a risky strategy but one that is paying off on the pitch for now, but it could only take a poor result or an early substitution for that to change. Salah should stop talking so publicly about the situation because it does no-one any favours, and there is a league title to be won first and foremost.

As for what needs to happen? The Reds need an answer from Trent. Get that and the other pieces of the jigsaw fall into place. What should happen is that all three end up staying, and that is still an outcome I can see happening.

Matt Maltby

Jamie Carragher divides opinion and I don’t always agree with his outbursts – but he’s right on calling out Mo Salah over his recent antics.

Salah is needlessly making this contract saga more complicated than it needs to be, while Virgil van Dijk and Trent Alexander-Arnold set the right example by doing their talking on the pitch. I understand Salah’s reasons for being frustrated – but it doesn’t need to be mentioned in every post-match interview.

Having said that, it doesn’t seem to be a distraction for the Egyptian king and his team-mates. Just look at their last two games, where they have brushed aside the Premier League champions and Champions League holders with relative ease.

If I had to pick to keep one of the three contract rebels, I’d go with Van Dijk. He epitomises what Arne Slot’s league leaders are about, with his ability on the pitch and attitude off of it setting Liverpool on the way to a memorable season.

Salah seems intent on blaming Liverpool’s chiefs for his situation, but if the public statements continue, Liverpool fans might begin to turn on him too. In regards to Alexander-Arnold, you can’t really blame him if he makes the move to Real Madrid – especially if he ends the season with another title triumph.

Virgil van Dijk is still dominating Premier League and Champions League attackers ( 
Image:
Carl Recine/Getty Images)