Should Liverpool prioritise Mo Salah, Trent Alexander-Arnold or Virgil van Dijk contract talks?

Star trio Mohamed Salah, Virgil van Dijk and Trent Alexander-Arnold have all now entered the final nine months of their contracts at Anfield, and from January will be allowed to talk to foreign clubs about a free transfer at the end of the season should nothing change before then.

The prospect of losing three players who would be contenders for places in the club's all-time XI at the same time is unthinkable and could have an immediate impact on the current Premier League leaders' ability to continue competing at the top of English and European football.

However, talks have progressed over the past month or so, and the 19-time English champions are hopeful of keeping hold of at least two of the talismanic figures.

Van Dijk could be the first of those to put pen to paper, following in the footsteps of fellow centre-backs Jarell Quansah and Ibrahima Konate, the latter of whom is expected to sign a new deal imminently.

However, when it comes to choosing a priority to target between three integral parts of the recent success of the club, who between them have made almost 1,000 Liverpool appearances, many fans may be torn.

Here, Sports Mole editor Barney Corkhill and Liverpool expert David Lynch look at the cases of all three players to be considered as the number one priority for the Reds to tie down as soon as possible.

Mohamed Salah

Age: 32

Position: Right winger

Liverpool appearances: 359

Liverpool goals: 217

Liverpool assists: 94

Wages: £350,000 per week

Wanted by: Saudi Pro League clubs

Priority level: Lowest

PROS

Just look at those stats.

Salah has directly contributed to 311 goals in 359 appearances for Liverpool across all competitions since his arrival from Roma in 2017, surpassing all expectations upon his return to the Premier League following an earlier unsuccessful stint with Chelsea, where he played just twice in the top flight.

With 11 direct goal contributions in 10 games so far this season, Salah also shows no sign of slowing down - indeed, his ratio of more than one goal or assist per game in 2024-25 outstrips the average from the rest of his Liverpool career.

Age is something to keep an eye on and a possible hurdle when it comes to discussions over contract length, but Salah also keeps himself in notoriously good shape and looks every bit as fast, strong and agile as he ever has.

Many forwards now are playing into their late 30s, and Salah's dedication to his fitness has even been compared to that of Cristiano Ronaldo, who is still plundering goals for club and country at 39.

Joining Ronaldo in Saudi Arabia appears the most likely outcome if Salah does leave Liverpool this summer, but he will no doubt feel that he has a few years left at the highest level.

Liverpool themselves would also surely regret losing their greatest goalscorer since Ian Rush a couple of years earlier than they need to, especially on a free transfer when they turned down a £150m bid just a couple of summers ago.

Indeed, Salah could lay claim to being an even better scorer than Rush given his goals-per-game ratio is only bettered by Gordon Hodgson among Liverpool's leading scorers of all time - a list which sees the Egyptian occupy fifth place.

The winger has ended every season since joining Liverpool as the club's top scorer - never failing to score fewer than 23 in a campaign - and should he do the same again in 2024-25 then he would join Roger Hunt as the only players in the club's history to have finished as the leading goal-getter in eight successive seasons.

Given those statistics, it is perhaps unsurprising that his name has been increasingly mentioned alongside the likes of Sir Kenny Dalglish and Steven Gerrard in the conversation of Liverpool's greatest-ever player, and therefore losing him on a free transfer would be particularly difficult to take.

CONS

So, how could a man who can lay claim to being in the conversation for Liverpool's GOAT be their lowest priority to sign a new contract?

Well, that is more down to the pros of the other two than any cons of Salah, but there are a couple of notable factors - namely age and wage - which combine to place the Egyptian King at the bottom of the pile.

"I agree on Salah [being the lowest priority]," Liverpool expert David Lynch told Sports Mole.

"I think it's maybe not even to characterise him as the one they can afford to lose, because in terms of output and goals and assists, he's going to be Liverpool's top scorer again this season, surely, like he always is, and he probably will be next season if he was still around.

"He's vital in terms of what they do, but his is just a trickier situation because of the size of the wage, the fact that attackers, when they do decline, it seems to happen like that.

"That's just a massive concern, and if he's saying, 'well, look, I could go and get a three-year deal in Saudi at this kind of money - I don't want a two-year deal', or 'I don't want a one-year deal, and that's all Liverpool are giving me', that is difficult.

"I can see Liverpool's side of things, because there is a possibility that decline comes from nowhere, that the numbers drop off.

"You do not want to be paying him for what he's done, you want to pay him for what he's doing, and there's an inherent risk with him, which I don't feel with Trent, whose peak years are ahead of him, but similarly with Van Dijk."

Salah is the highest-paid player at Liverpool, and while Van Dijk and Alexander-Arnold are already second and third in that list too, Salah is quite a way clear on £350,000 per week compared to £220,000 per week for Van Dijk.

There is also the factor of a succession plan, and with Liverpool already boasting a forward line containing six players of starting XI quality - albeit none with anything close to Salah's record - the Egyptian's absence may be felt less keenly than those of Van Dijk or Alexander-Arnold.

Having an extra £350,000 per week to play with would also put Liverpool in a strong position to sign a replacement should they opt to dip into the transfer market, and a forward to replace Salah might be easier to find than a centre-back on the same level as Van Dijk.

On top of that, Salah may well be the player pushing for an exit the most; given his standing in the Arab world, he would become the star figure of the Saudi Pro League should he make that switch, above even Ronaldo, and the allure of that alongside what is sure to be a gargantuan wage is sure to be tempting.

Virgil van Dijk

Age: 33

Position: Centre-back

Liverpool appearances: 279

Liverpool goals: 24

Liverpool assists: 12

Wages: £220,000 per week

Wanted by: Saudi Pro League clubs

Priority level: Middle

PROS

For all of Salah's goals and records, ask Liverpool supporters who is their most important player right now, and the answer you'd hear most often is likely to be Virgil van Dijk.

Eyebrows were raised when the Reds parted with a world-record sum for a defender to bring him in from Southampton in 2018, but within months it was evident that the £75m fee was money well spent.

Alongside Alisson Becker's arrival, the signing of Van Dijk provided the final piece of the jigsaw for Liverpool to regain their spot at the top of English, European and world football under Jurgen Klopp.

Since then, the Dutch colossus has regularly been hailed as one of the best defenders in Premier League history, with some even putting him in the conversation about the greatest centre-backs ever seen in football.

Like Salah, Van Dijk has been in imperious form so far in 2024-25, leading a Liverpool defence which is the best in England despite being the eldest of the three players in question at 33.

"Van Dijk - I just think, because he's a centre-back, he can play longer," Lynch told Sports Mole.

"He's looking as good as he ever has, and because they're playing in a system now with a little bit more protection in front of them, that will prolong him as well. He's having to do less sprints back and defending one-on-one, even though he can absolutely do that.

"He's on lesser wages than Salah as well - there's quite a significant difference there."

Van Dijk took over the captain's armband from Jordan Henderson last year, but had long since established himself as one of the leaders in the team before that.

Given his unique mix of pace, power, aerial dominance, reading of the game, aura, leadership and world-class quality, Van Dijk would surely be the toughest of the three players to replace.

With only Ibrahima Konate, Jarell Quansah and Joe Gomez as the other centre-back options in Liverpool's current squad, they already lack a bit of depth in that area without losing the best in the world in that position.

CONS

Van Dijk's attributes make the cons of keeping him a very short list.

At £220,000 per week, he is more expensive than Alexander-Arnold, but few would argue against him being worth that to the team.

Perhaps the most glaring factor is his age - he would be 34 going into next season, and questions would then naturally be asked about how long he has left at the very top level.

Van Dijk does partially rely on some physical attributes which tend to decline with age - most notably pace - but his pace comes largely from his stride length in full flow, while his exceptional reading of the game would also help to mitigate any loss of speed.

Trent Alexander-Arnold

Age: 26

Position: Right-back

Liverpool appearances: 319

Liverpool goals: 19

Liverpool assists: 83

Wages: £180,000 per week

Wanted by: Real Madrid

Priority level: Highest

PROS

A Liverpool lad born and bred, Alexander-Arnold has locality and age on his side when being considered Liverpool's top priority to tie down.

"The bare minimum for me really is to get two of these signed down, and one of those has to absolutely be Trent Alexander-Arnold," Liverpool expert David Lynch told Sports Mole.

"I've always said I think Trent is the absolute priority here. I think Liverpool would like to give themselves a little bit of space with Van Dijk and Salah because, age-wise, those are trickier deals to do in terms of what they will demand length of contract-wise, the wages that Salah is on - that £350k a week is an awful lot - so that adds to how difficult that decision is.