Why are Liverpool Letting Contracts Run Down? | OneFootball

You won’t have to look far for someone, somewhere to be talking about the fact that Liverpool have three big players entering the final stages of their contracts. Every time Arne Slot, the manager, speaks to the press, one of the first questions that is he asked is about whether Mohamed Salah, Virgil van Dijk and Trent Alexander-Arnold are likely to be Liverpool players for the 2025-2026 season.

What not all supporters realised is that there are others that are likely to be entering the latter stages of their contracts in the not too distant future, so it isn’t just the ‘big three’ that they need to worry about. The question is, why is it happening?

Circumstances Conspired

It is really easy to suggest that Fenway Sports Group and their management team messed up in allowing the ‘big three’ of Mo Salah, Virgil van Dijk and Trent Alexander-Arnold to enter the final year of their contracts. Those that don’t like the owners and send mad posts on social media with hashtags like ‘FSGOUT’ will be quick to criticise the owners over the situation that the club currently finds itself in.

The reality is, though, that things are rarely as simple as supporters might wish to make out. As the 2022-2023 season reaches its climax, with the Reds having underperformed on a major scale, Jürgen Klopp began to consider his future.

The German felt tired, believing that it was time for him to step away from the manager’s position but also knowing that he couldn’t leave the club in such a mess. Instead, he resigned himself to one more season, getting things back on track and leaving on a high. The problem was that he spoke to the owners about his desire to leave, meaning that any conversations that were had with players would doubtless include questions over the manager’s future.

Players wouldn’t be quick to commit to the club if they didn’t know who would be in charge, nor what their relationship with the new manager was likely to be like moving forward.

It is easy now to say that Liverpool should’ve spoken to the players in the summer of 2022, but if they had extended the contracts of two players in their 30s for two years in advance, with no knowledge of how well they would play moving forwards, that would have been a crazy thing to do. For all that they’re performing at the top level right now, we’ve all seen players like Gary Neville and Cristiano Ronaldo have their legs virtually fall of them seemingly overnight.

By the summer of 2023 no contract talks could take place without discussions around Klopp’s future being included, then a year later everyone needed to know who was coming in next.

Once Slot arrived, he will have wanted to get to know his players and they him. By that stage, there was no need to rush any transfer negotiations, presuming that all players wanted to remain at Liverpool. Both Salah and van Dijk appeared to suggest that they did in the media, leaving just Alexander-Arnold. His contract could’ve been renewed in 2022, but the player himself has plenty of agency.

Right now, we don’t know what’s going to happen with Trent, but the rumours are that he is Real Madrid-bound. If that’s been in his head for some time then there really isn’t a lot that the club could’ve done to persuade him otherwise.

Ok, But What About the Other Players?

There are clear reasons why the ‘big three’ haven’t yet agreed to a new contract, even if it seems likely that they will in the not too distant future; or two of them at any rate. What it doesn’t explain is why other players haven’t been nailed down to longer contracts. Here is a look at the players whose contracts are due to expire in the summer of 2025, according to TransferMarkt:

In each case, it is easy to see why the club hasn’t been in a rush to enter into contract negotiations. In the case of Konaté, for example, the defender has had injury problems in the past and the manager as well as the team responsible for contract negotiations may well have wanted to test his robustness before committing to a longer-term contract for him.

When it comes to Robertson, the left-back has shown his age at times this season, often being at the scene of the crime when the Reds have conceded goals. Does anyone really think he’s got much in him beyond 2025, in terms of his playing ability?

Caoimhín Kelleher, meanwhile, has all but said that he wants to be a first-choice goalkeeper somewhere. Obviously from Liverpool’s point of view, it would be a no-brainer to sign the Irishman up for longer, given how exceptionally well he’s done covering for Alisson Becker any time that the Brazilian has been out injured. For the man himself, though, he is unlikely to want to commit to a long-term deal without assurances that he’s going to be the main man.

Unless Liverpool plan to phase Becker out next season, which is unlikely, then Kelleher is probably more likely to want to leave than sign a new contract; especially considering we’ve signed Giorgi Mamardashvili.

Is PSR a Factor?

One of the most confusing things in football, at least for the modern supporter, is how PSR works. The acronym for Profit & Sustainability Rules, they have been brought in by the Premier League in order to stop clubs simply spending money at will without thinking about their long-term sustainability. It is also important to note that UEFA have PSR rules of their own, which are even stricter than those of the English top-flight.

The transfer window of January 2024 demonstrated that clubs were concerned about ensuring that they didn’t fall foul of them, with the same true of the following summer’s transfer window.

That both Everton and Nottingham Forest had points deductions because of their lack of sticking to PSR showed that the Premier League was taking its responsibilities seriously. The rules say that clubs in the Premier League can make ‘allowable’ losses of up to £5 million per season, averaged out over three seasons, with the figure increased to £35 million per season with owner investment. Any transfer costs, which includes players wages, can also be spread out over five years. There are plenty of caveats and sub-clauses within that, but it is something that all clubs are having to think about when signing players.

UEFA’s rules are even stricter, with a ‘squad cost’ considered and including both player and manager wages. When it comes to contract, it means that clubs will find it much more difficult to sign players on a ‘free transfer’ and pay them big wages to persuade them to join them, perhaps also offering a joining fee as in incentive.

In other words, Michael Edwards and Richard Hughes might well feel that playing ‘chicken’ with their players is worth it, considering the fact that it isn’t as easy for them to join another club out of contract as it used to be. In leaving contracts to run down rather than increasing wages, they are saving money in the long-term.