Michael Edwards against Salah, Van Dijk contracts along with five unhappy stars

In a period devoid of bombshell football news the up-in-the air futures of Trent Alexander-Arnold, Mohamed Salah and Virgil van Dijk provided welcome jeopardy.

But with Alexander-Arnold set for Real Madrid, Salah signing an extension and Van Dijk set to follow suit we’re once again left feeling empty in a season designed to deflate and disappoint because of course that’s what was going to happen.

99 per cent of Liverpool stakeholders will be delighted, but we’ve come up with six whose shoulders will have slumped upon hearing that Salah and Van Dijk have extended their stays at Anfield.

Jarell Quansah

A shock England call-up has put gloss on what must have been a very disappointing season for Quansah. His day in the sun as Liverpool’s starting centre-back was just that, a day, or 45 minutes to be more precise. Arne Slot hooked the 22-year-old at half-time in the very first game of the season against Ipswich and he’s started just one Premier League game since, watching from the bench as Ibrahima Konate cemented his spot alongside Van Dijk in their cruise to the title.

There’s interest from Newcastle, which will now be even more tempting for Quansah, who may still have held out hope of living out his dream of being the long-term replacement for Van Dijk at his boyhood club, in spite of Jamie Carragher’s assertion that Slot may look elsewhere to mitigate a “weakness” that has harmed Liverpool with Van Dijk at the back and won’t be solved by Quansah.

Harvey Elliott

We get that his direct rival for a spot in the team is Dominik Szoboslzai, but we’re also sure he would have seen more opportunities on the right wing – where he’s played nearly as many games (37) for Liverpool than at No.10 (56) anyway – when Mohamed Salah’s replacement failed to reach that impossibly high bar.

An exit now feels inevitable for a very talented footballer who’s had four starts all season and none in the Premier League, in which he’s featured for just 156 minutes. There was interest from the Bundesliga in January and we’re tipping him for Bayer Leverkusen to replace Bayern or Man City-bound Florian Wirtz.

Federico Chiesa

As is the case with both Quansah and Elliott, but perhaps more so in the Italian’s case, Chiesa may actually be quite attracted to the idea of his Liverpool career (if we can even call it that) reaching its conclusion. It’s not gone brilliantly.

We predicted as much but also expected Arne Slot to hand the winger more than 33 minutes of Premier League football having arrived as the marquee (only) addition in the summer. Salah has been and will continue to be quite the barrier to his participation.

There’s little doubt Liverpool would have signed a replacement to play ahead of Chiesa anyway had the Egyptian upped sticks, but there would at least have been something of a battle for superiority rather than a walkover that’s seen Chiesa waving a white flag from the day he arrived at Anfield.

Salah staying is bad news for Chiesa because of the likely combination of him barely playing but not being sold with eyes on the Africa Cup of Nations.

Alexis Mac Allister

Mac Allister became the sixth member of Liverpool’s ‘leadership group’ in October and despite being the latest addition would have had a very good chance of being captain next season had Salah and Van Dijk followed Alexander-Arnold out the door.

Andy Robertson – whose future is in doubt amid a clear downturn in performances and reports that Bournemouth’s Milos Kerkez will be drafted in to replace him – and Alisson make up the sextet and assuming Arne Slot is against the criminal idea of making a goalkeeper captain, Mac Allister could so easily have been wearing the armband next season.

Marc Guehi

The Crystal Palace captain was probably the most likely and therefore most frustrated player among ten possible Salah, Van Dijk replacements from the Premier League to be signed had his counterpart left Liverpool at the end of the season.

We’re not saying he’s at Van Dijk’s level, but he’s got a similar calm demeanour which Slot clearly covets in footballers as a very composed man himself. And although Guehi says he’s happy at Palace as a mark of respect for the club, we do also wonder whether he’s shielding himself from further disappointment after Newcastle couldn’t quite stump up the cash required to sign him last summer.

Michael Edwards

Jurgen Klopp’s powerbase had expanded to the point where he was making all of the key decisions over transfers and player contracts by the time Edwards left in 2022. It was a reality that made Edwards uneasy, with ‘robust discussions behind the scenes about the merits and value of some new deals for older players’ reportedly playing a significant role in his exit before his return to the club last March as the CEO of Football.

The deal Salah signed in 2022 was an astute footballing call, but contributed to a financial loss, and while Richard Hughes’ decision – because it has been his call and not Edwards’ – to hand these latest extensions to 32-year-old Salah and 33-year-old Van Dijk may also turn out to be a wise move.

But Edwards may well be citing Liverpool’s good fortune that Sadio Mane rejected new terms after scoring 23 goals in his final season at Anfield before a speedy downturn that saw him spend one ill-fated season at Bayern ahead a move to Saudi Arabia in an I Told You So speech when Salah and Van Dijk go to pot next season.

Click here to read article