Jamie Carragher and Gary Neville were at loggerheads during a discussion about Liverpool’s management of players’ contracts in the wake of this week’s news about Trent Alexander-Arnold.
The Reds’ vice-captain looks set to leave his boyhood club in the coming months as Real Madrid close in on securing an agreement to sign the 26-year-old on a free transfer at the end of his current deal.
Mo Salah and Virgil van Dijk are also approaching the end of their respective contracts at Anfield, although hope still remains that the duo will stay put for at least another year or two.
Trent’s impending exit from Liverpool was inevitably a major talking point on the latest episode of Stick to Football, and it prompted a rather lively debate between Carragher, Neville and Ian Wright.
Carragher, Neville and Wright argue over Liverpool contracts
When the latter asked whether FSG were to blame for allowing the contracts of three crucial players to drift those close to expiring without yet being renewed, the former Reds defender was clearly irked as he replied: “No, please, no, no, no. I’ve explained this. Stop it. I’ve explained this a million times.”
Neville strongly disagreed with his fellow Sky Sports pundit as he shot back: “Liverpool are the only club who are allowed to run their players’ contracts down to zero, but they are still doing OK?
“Three of the best players in the world have got contracts running out, but Liverpool are still doing a great job managing that? I’m sorry, I can’t accept that.”
Carragher then countered that the boardroom upheaval at Anfield – especially in terms of the sporting director position since Michael Edwards left the role in 2022 – contributed towards the contract situations of Trent, Salah and Van Dijk not being resolved sooner, adding that Jurgen Klopp’s exit may also have been a factor.
Liverpool must not let this happen again
We can see both sides of the argument here – while the lack of stability at boardroom level certainly wasn’t helpful and appears to have seen the buck being passed around like a football, it still beggars belief that nobody in a hierarchical position moved quicker to try and secure three crucial players to new contracts.
It seems inevitable that Trent will leave on a free transfer, which is hard enough for Liverpool fans to stomach by itself without the fear that Salah and Van Dijk could follow suit.
If all three slip out the exit door without a single penny being recouped in transfer fees, that’d be a shocking indictment of mismanagement from the club’s hierarchy and undermine so much of the excellent work that Arne Slot has done since replacing Klopp in the dugout last year.
The vice-captain’s impending exit heightens the pressure on Richard Hughes to ensure that the Dutch defender and Egyptian winger are tied down to new deals, even if it’s only for a year or two.
At least that would give Liverpool some bit of breathing space to seek out and recruite elite replacements who’d be ready to hit the ground running when the time comes for Salah and Van Dijk to depart.
The current Anfield hierarchy can’t change what’s happened in the past (or not, in this instance), but they can learn from it and make sure that we don’t find ourselves in such a precarious situation again over the coming years.
