Liverpool’s contract situation regarding influential trio Trent Alexander-Arnold, Virgil van Dijk and Mohamed Salah is one of the key priorities at Anfield right now.
The three players are all in the final year of their respective deals at Anfield and as things stand, will be able to speak to overseas clubs about a summer free transfer in just over three months.
While Salah at Van Dijk, at the ages of 32 and 33 respectively, will soon need to be replaced soon regardless of whether or not they remain at Anfield beyond this season, homegrown star Alexander-Arnold should just be entering his peak years at 25 years old and should be the club’s main priority when it comes to contract discussions.
Fabrizio Romano details Liverpool star Trent Alexander-Arnold's 'priority'
With Real Madrid said to be in ‘constant contact’ as per TEAMtalk with Alexander-Arnold’s representatives over a move to the Bernabeu in the summer, Liverpool will know that they will need to get a new deal signed before January, in order to stop the European Champions from reaching a pre-contract agreement.
A fresh update from transfer specialist Fabrizio Romano will come as welcome news to the Reds faithful, therefore, as he insists that the star, who FourFourTwo ranked as the third-best left-back in world football earlier this year, is ‘prioritising’ a stay on Merseyside.
“The priority for Trent is Liverpool,” Romano said on his Daily Briefing. “Trent will keep discussing things with Liverpool about the project, about the idea they have and about what they want to do at the club for the next years.”
This echos the player’s comments from last weekend, when he addressed his future for the first time this season. While he did not give a definitive answer regarding a new deal, he said he wants to captain the side and win trophies with the Reds.
“The most important thing is always trophies," he said. "I want to win trophies. We were close to the title last season and we got a cup. The (quadruple) was on for a while I suppose.
“This season we are looking really good, it is still early days, but we need a lot of consistency. It will be difficult but we are looking to win as many trophies as we can.”
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In FourFourTwo’s opinion, getting Alexander-Arnold to put pen to paper should be at the very top of the club’s to-do list.
It is clear that the player has an affinity with the club, but there are few bigger moves in world football than a transfer to Real Madrid and the Reds must do all they can to remove this temptation by not only meeting Alexander-Arnold’s financial demands, but also his ambition.