Trent or Salah? Who should Liverpool renew next after Van Dijk extension?

Muhammad Butt

28 Nov 2024 06:00 CST
8 min read

Trent Alexander-Arnold, Mohamed Salah, Liverpool — © IMAGO

Virgil van Dijk is on the verge of a new deal with Liverpool, so who should they renew next: Mohamed Salah or Trent Alexander-Arnold?

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Heading into the 2024/25 season, Liverpool had three big question marks hanging over the future of their three best players. Mohamed Salah, Trent Alexander-Arnold and Virgil van Dijk were all headed into the last year of their contracts.

Feasibly, all three could have left the Reds in the summer of 2025. But realistically, at least two of them would get a renewal.

Liverpool fans would love all three to be renewed, but they would also acknowledge that's not how Fenway Sports Group have ever run the club.

When Mohamed Salah got his last big contract in summer 2022, it came at the expense of Sadio Mane who had to leave the club in that same window.

So, more than likely, one of these three will depart a free agent this coming summer. And with word of Virgil van Dijk's new contract spreading fast, the decision comes down to Trent or Salah.

So who should Liverpool renew? The local lad turned world-class gamechanger at full-back? Or one of the greatest forwards in the history of the club?

Let's have a look!

© IMAGO - Virgil van Dijk is on the verge of signing a new deal.

Should Liverpool renew Mohamed Salah?

Pros

It's not hard to make a case for Liverpool renewing Mohamed Salah. There's so many ways you can do it.

With 223 goals (in just 368 games), Salah is the fifth highest goalscorer in the history of the club. By the end of the season he will be fourth and if he has an especially prolific second-half of the campaign he could even leapfrog Gordgon Hodgson's 241 into third.

Salah's rate of goalscoring is absurd. He's play one more game for the club than the much-revered Robbie Fowler but has scored 40 more goals.

He has 45 goals in the Champions League, 42 of them for Liverpool. No one else in Liverpool's illustrious history in Europe can come close to that.

With just five more goals he can enter the top 10 all-time top scorers in the Champions League, surpassing Eusebio, Andriy Shevchenko and Alfredo Di Stefano along the way.

The company he keeps with is astonishing, his ability is astonishing. He's been one of the three best players in the Premier League every season since he showed up, and given this is his eighth season at the club that is a remarkable run of conistent excellence.

Salah is so good that Liverpool are the only team in the world who can realistically say that Lamine Yamal would not walk into their starting XI.

© IMAGO - Mohamed Salah has been one of the best players in the Premier League since his arrival.

Cons

Much as Salah has had an incredible career, he's had an incredible career, y'know?

Like, he's 32 years-old. He turns 33 in the summer.

Now, he's obviously a supremely fit fellow, but Father Time is undefeated in sports. And for a player who very much relies on his explosive speed and physicality, one bad injury could wreck him.

Hell, he doesn't even need to get injured it could just go. We've seen that happen before, look at Ilkay Gundogan this season. Sometimes the mojo just leaves you.

And while Salah would probably be fine next season, what about the season after that? And after that?

Unless he takes a one-year renewal (unlikely) this move would tie Liverpool to be paying big wages to a player who could, halfway through the contract, not be worth it anymore. And one only need look at Barcelona to see the problems that can cause.

Should Liverpool renew Trent Alexander-Arnold?

Pros

The case for renewing Trent is more emotive. He's a local lad, from West Derby, a suburb of Liverpool itself. He's been a Red all his life and been at the club since he was 6 years-old. Six!

But look he's not just some competition winner. At 26 years-old he's got 325 games for Liverpool under his belt with the potential for many more.

In fact, it's not ridiculous to suggest that Trent has the potential to notch 700 appearances for the club when all is said and done.

Yes he's 26, but his game does not rely on pace and he has the potential to age with the utmost grace. This puts Jamie Carragher's 737 appearances within reach (Ian Callaghan's preposterous 857 is probably too elusive even for Trent).

Trent Alexander-Arnold is already going to go down in Liverpool history, but just think of how much more history there is to write. He's just now entering his peak years, we're about to see the best of Trent. Everything up to now has just been preamble!

That preamble, by the way, includes a massive 59 assists since his debut season. 59! Only two players have more and they're both players who were in their primes for that era (Son Heung-min has 59, Mohamed Salah has 74 and Kevin de Bruyne has 85). And, of course, none of those guys were right-backs!

Football has changed. Full-back is no longer a place where you stick a centre-back who's too short, or a winger who can't dribble. This is a position that can dominate a game, and there's none better at it than Trent Alexander-Arnold.

Why would Liverpool ever want to let him leave? Especially as he'd likely go to Real Madrid, a team they will probably face on a semi-regular basis for the entireity of Trent's time there!

This is a player who has spoken of his desire to captain Liverpool. The club runs through his veins and he's world-class, why would you ever want to lose a player like that?

© IMAGO - Trent Alexander-Arnold has a unicorn skill-set.

Cons

Well, the major con for Trent is Conor Bradley. The 21 year-old Northern Ireland international is Liverpool's hot young prospect at right-back.

He's a dogged, tenacious battler with a surprising touch of finesse. He's also not afraid of anyone, as we saw when he cleaned Kylian Mbappe out with a slide tackle in the Champions League.

That game was a case study in why Liverpool should let Trent walk. Not only did Bradley hold Mbappe in check at the back (though the Frenchman's own poor form helped there) but he drove forward and got the assist for Alexis MacAllister's opener! Assists were meat to be Trent's thing!

The defending is key, too. Trent is famously a middling to terrible defender who makes up for that with incredible offensive play. Meanwhile Bradley is a genuine two-way guy who can do everything. His rugged defensive power makes Liverpool's lives easier. They don't have to worry about anyone rinsing him.

Another con is that, much as Trent has changed the game a bit, can Liverpool really make a right-back the highest-paid player in the team? The knock-on effect that could have when other players want their renewals could be very rough for the Reds as Trent becomes a baseline for stud forwards.

Should Liverpool renew Trent Alexander-Arnold or Mohamed Salah?

So, who should the Reds renew?

Having looked at he cases for each player, it is clear that Trent Alexander-Arnold is the player that Liverpool should renew.

Yes, Liverpool have a seemingly ready-made and battle-tested replacement for Trent in Conor Bradley. And they can't say the same for Salah where they would have to enter the transfer market to sign a right-winger.

But Salah is going to be 33 next season. They would need to be looking at replacing him in a year or two anyway, so why not do it now and lock down the unicorn skill-set of a world-class local lad that's been with the club since he was 6? There genuinely could be another decade of elite football left in Trent, eight years for sure if he stays free of injury. If he were to deliver that elsewhere, can you imagine how gutted Liverpool would be?

Let Salah lead Liverpool to the Premier League title this season. Then give the man a hero's farewell and let him take his talents to somewhere else (Saudi Arabia, perhaps?) while the club build around Trent's supernatural skill-set.

As for Bradley? Convert him to left-back. There's no ready-made replacement for Andrew Robertson and Bradley's dogged demeanour is a good match for the Scot.

But most essentially, by renewing Trent Alexander-Arnold, you will have secured the loyalty and future of one of the most unique and spectacular footballing talents in the world.