Why Liverpool Can’t Afford To Sit On These Contract Calls

Liverpool have already waved goodbye to more first-team experience this year than most clubs lose in half a decade. Mohamed Salah, Andy Robertson and Ibrahima Konate all left as free agents, and that alone should be enough to focus minds at Anfield. Now five more contracts are edging towards their final twelve months, and two of them belong to players Liverpool genuinely cannot afford to lose on the cheap.

The Van Dijk Question Won’t Wait

Virgil van Dijk is the obvious one. He turns 36 before the 2027/28 season starts, an age that makes any contract conversation more complicated than it would be for a twenty five year old. But we’d argue the number on his passport matters less than what he’s still producing on it. Asked directly after the win at Bournemouth whether talks over his future had begun, Van Dijk gave a short answer. “Already? No, I am just focusing on the present. There is nothing to report on that.” That’s a captain managing the noise, not dodging the subject, and Liverpool would be foolish to read too much into the brevity of it. What they can’t do is let the calendar make the decision for them. If Van Dijk keeps performing at the level Andoni Iraola needs from his back line, this stops being a football question and becomes a value judgment, weighing up how much the club is prepared to pay to keep hold of its on field leader and dressing room anchor.

Alisson’s Situation Looks Calmer, But It Isn’t

Alisson Becker’s case follows a similar shape without the same urgency, at least on the surface. He turns 34 shortly, and goalkeepers routinely play at the top level well past that landmark provided positioning, decision making and distribution hold up, which his have. He’s also one of three vice captains alongside Joe Gomez and Dominik Szoboszlai, which tells you plenty about where he sits in the club’s leadership structure beyond the penalty area. That’s precisely why letting his contract run down would sting more than the age numbers suggest. Liverpool have already lost a huge chunk of dressing room seniority this year. Losing Alisson too, on a free, in the same rebuilding window, would be a second unforced hit to a squad still finding its identity under Iraola.

Gomez, Tsimikas and Endo Complicate The Picture Further

Joe Gomez, at 29, should in theory be the simplest renewal of the five. Age isn’t the obstacle, availability is. Persistent injury problems have limited him to just 28 Liverpool starts since the summer of 2024, and that record makes any long-term commitment harder to justify no matter how well regarded he is inside the building. Kostas Tsimikas and Wataru Endo face a tougher task still. Neither has done enough recently to force Liverpool’s hand, and both will need a run of games and performances between now and next summer if they want to change the conversation around their futures.

This Is About More Than Money

None of this is really about the wage bill, whatever the headlines suggest. It’s about whether Liverpool go into 2027/28 with genuine leadership and know how still in the building, or whether the club adds two more high profile departures to a list that already includes Salah, Robertson and Konate. Liverpool have time to get these calls right. They don’t have time to waste. The next sporting director, whoever that turns out to be, will inherit an in tray already stacked with transfer business. These five contracts, especially the two at the top, might end up mattering just as much as anything done in the market.