It is unlikely to have escaped your attention that we’re in the middle of another international break. If you’re anything like me then you doubtless bury your head in the sand and ignore them, pretend they’re not happening and don’t even begin to think about when the next one will be. Should that be the case then I’ve got bad news for you: there’s another one in November. As footballers talk openly about having to play too many games, the new Champions League format adds more matches and the Football Association moves to scrap FA Cup replays in order to make it easier for the bigger teams to justify playing in the competition, international football is busy organising largely pointless matches every five minutes. I readily admit to being biased about it all because I can’t stand international football, but even so. With just seven matches having been played in the Premier League, we’ve already had two international breaks and there is another one to come before the end of the year. Little wonder that some people are growing to be sick of football.
International break is over but there’s another one in 4 weeks pic.twitter.com/jO7ctrAeP1
— ValleCSC🇪🇸 (@AGCeltic2) September 11, 2024
One of the biggest issues with international football is that it affects some teams disproportionately to others. The Reds have had 18 players away over the past fortnight, for example, albeit with Virgil van Dijk and Mo Salah having returned early. Our opponents upon the players’ return, Chelsea, have sent 15 players out to their international teams. Whilst that might not make a massive difference specifically ahead of the weekend’s game, it is the sort of thing that can have an accumulative impact over the course of a season, given the ever-increasing number of international breaks. Arsenal have 11 players away with their countries, which could end up being an important differential come the end of the campaign. For the record, 17 115 Charges FC players went away with the senior sides, but I remain convinced that the investigation into their financial wrongdoing will result in their place in the Premier League table being all but irrelevant come the conclusion to the season so I’m not including them. Internationals are rubbish and boring, but the players still get fatigued playing in them.
Salah & Virgil Are Proving Their Worth
When it comes to the contract situations of the ‘Big 3’, I think it’s important not to lump them all together in discussions. The reality is that what the Liverpool hierarchy needs to consider is different for Trent Alexander-Arnold than it is for Virgil van Dijk and Mo Salah. As a result, I will look at the right-back separately in a minute. In terms of the Egyptian King and our captain, the considerations for Richard Hughes et al are about their ability to keep producing at the same level moving forwards. As anyone who has ever seen a picture of Salah without his top on will know, he keeps himself in tremendous shape. Even so, he looked like he was tiring at the point at which Arne Slot decided to take him off during our game against Crystal Palace. Add into that the fact that he suffered a long-term muscle injury for pretty much the first time in his Liverpool career last season and you can understand why there might be a reluctance to offer him any sort of deal that is for more than a season or two. Salah will be wanting longer, but does it make sense to give it to him?
It just hit me this could actually be Salah last season with Liverpool. Up until this point I believed he’s getting a contract extension but what if? Can’t imagine this club without The Egyptian King.😔 pic.twitter.com/QuQDWSxuHs
— Nuna (@NaiiLFC) October 10, 2024
Both he and van Dijk will also be signing one of the last contracts of their career, if not the last, so it makes complete sense for the pair of them to be wanting a big payday. For the club, meanwhile, that doesn’t make a heap of sense. We have seen Manchester United get into all sorts of trouble by offering huge contracts to players in the twilight years of their career and Hughes won’t be wanting us to make the same mistake. When it comes to the Dutchman, he looks to be back to his best this season and is still imperious at the back. The problem is, when a defender’s legs fall off them they do so quickly and in dramatic fashion. There is no way that an ownership like Fenway Sports Group will be happy to sign off on a three-year contract extension for a player who might only have another six to 12 months left at the very top. None of these are my thoughts, for the record. I’m just trying to see things from the club’s point of view as I wonder why it might be that such important players still haven’t signed a new contract given their importance to the team.
Trent Has His Own Thoughts & Desires
In the case of Trent Alexander-Arnold, the same concerns about the player’s age and how much longer he’s got left to play aren’t there. Instead, it is likely to be the player himself who is making the best use of his agency in the situation. What I mean by that is that Trent might well be considering whether he really wants to spend the best years of his career at Anfield and miss the chance to play for a club like Real Madrid. He will have seen Steven Gerrard give up his entire career to stay at Liverpool and fail to win the Premier League. For Alexander-Arnold, it is slightly different because he’s already won everything that there is to win with the Reds. Seeing how well his best mate Jude Bellingham is getting on at the Santiago Bernabéu might well be giving him pause for thought prior to pulling the trigger on any contract agreement. That isn’t me saying that he’s definitely going to be leaving Merseyside for Spain before the end of the season, but I do think it makes complete sense for him to be spending some time weighing up his options.
#RealMadrid will make a contract offer to Trent Alexander-Arnold if he does not sign a renewal with #LFC before January. (Marca) pic.twitter.com/Xzsz9xsaK6
— Football España (@footballespana_) October 8, 2024
The player is the Liverpool vice-captain and, should he sign a new contract, will almost certainly become the club’s permanent captain in the not too distant future when van Dijk leaves. Is captaining the Reds enough of a draw to get him to stay? I imagine it might well be, but I think the club will need to do more than just pull on his heartstrings. The defender will want to be shown how valued he is and that might well include making him the club’s best-paid player. That, of course, adds complications to the contract negotiations for van Dijk and Salah, both of whom would be able to make an argument as to why they should be paid more than anyone else at the club. All of which is to say that it isn’t quite as simple for Richard Hughes and his team as ‘pay them what they want’ or ‘get the contracts signed’. It never should have got to this point, but the moment that Jürgen Klopp knew he was leaving made negotiations significantly more complicated. The players will have wanted to know if Arne Slot is the real deal. Now they know he might well be, contracts could be signed soon.
This last point is key – knowing if Slot is the real deal – I’m shocked that hasn’t really been talked of in the narrative anywhere else in media. I’d be surprised if during their last extensions, certain leading players won’t have had some clauses or wording in their contracts around Klopp’s involvement in the club (or a world class manager being there). Once LFC knew Klopp was leaving (last Oct / Nov?) it was basically impossible to renegotiate Virj, Mo & Trent until they had proof there was a competitive manager in place. They’re competitive players who want to win – what if they signed and we ended up with David Moyes post Fergie situation?
Exactly that, Charlie. Too many people are ignoring that fact. The truth is that the majority of the football world expected Liverpool to fall apart in Klopp’s absence, so it isn’t shocking that the players might well have done so too.