Michael Owen has advised Liverpool to retain Mohamed Salah and Virgil van Dijk for as long as possible, warning that the team is merely “decent” without them.
Salah and Van Dijk, along with Trent Alexander-Arnold, have contracts that expire at the end of next season, and no progress has been made on potential new deals for any of them.
For more than a year, Al-Ittihad, a Saudi Arabian club, have been interested in 32-year-old Salah. Last summer, Liverpool turned down a £150 million offer for the Egyptian star.
Van Dijk, set to turn 33 this summer, has attracted interest from Bayern Munich, Borussia Dortmund, and Saudi Pro League teams such as Al-Nassr.
Liverpool are reportedly planning for the eventual replacements of Van Dijk and Salah, with numerous transfer links to left-sided center-backs and right-sided forwards.
Riccardo Calafiori, Goncalo Inacio, Levi Colwill, and Piero Hincapie are some of the names being considered to strengthen the central defence, while Dario Osorio and Mohammed Kudus are potential attacking signings.
Salah and Van Dijk are among the highest earners at Liverpool, with a combined weekly wage exceeding £500,000. Former player Owen acknowledges the club’s challenge, emphasising the need to balance securing favourable deals and maximizing player value.
Moreover, he thinks Michael Edwards and Richard Hughes must do everything possible to extend Salah and Van Dijk’s contracts, as the team would be distinctly average without them.
“It all depends on what terms and things like that, doesn’t it,” he told AceOdds as reported by DAZN.
“There’s always fans out there that are so desperate that say: ‘Just give them whatever they want’ and I’m not a person who thinks that, of course.
“But you’ve got to keep the difference makers. You’ve got to find difference-makers.
“Liverpool have probably got three or four in their team that are the difference between being a decent team and a great team.
“And every team is the same. There will be good players, great players, and then there’s just the absolute elite, and Virgil Van Dijk is the absolute elite.
“Mo Salah in his position, is the absolute elite. If you take both of them out of the team, they’re not going to win the league next year. They are that important. Unless you replace them obviously with top equal players.
“So, yes, I would very much like to see Mo Salah and Van Dijk continue.
“There’s no sign of them aging, apart from, obviously, we all age every single day. But there’s no sign in their performance that they’re aging.
“I would like to see Liverpool have both of those players for the foreseeable.”
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