Virgil van Dijk was asked about his Liverpool future after the Reds’ 2-0 win over Brentford
Transfer deadline day on Friday marks more than just the end of this summer’s window for Liverpool. It is also the day when Mohamed Salah, Virgil van Dijk and Trent Alexander-Arnold will only have ten months remaining on their contracts.
Van Dijk, 33, of that trio has spoken most often and openly about his future at the club he captains. “I’m very calm,” the central defender said twice while speaking on Sky Sports after the Brentford match.
“Whatever happens next year, we will see. Everything happens for a reason, is how I see it, and for now, there have been no changes in my situation.”
Reds fans are also still waiting to see what will happen. That is because, unlike the future-proofing of the goalkeeper position for life after Alisson with Giorgi Mamardashvili or the expected addition to the frontline of Federico Chiesa, there are no indications of defensive additions arriving either now or next summer.
Even the opportunistic attempts to sign Anthony Gordon and Martin Zubimendi showed an appetite to sign a successor to Salah and belatedly replace Fabinho. Arne Slot giving minutes to Conor Bradley to start this season at the expense of Alexander-Arnold can conceivably construed as developing an heir on the right-hand side.
But there is seemingly no move to do so in the middle. Maybe that means Van Dijk is staying, but the man himself does not seem so sure and appears in no rush to communicate that, adding after the weekend’s game: “There’s no reason for me to start thinking of something else.”
Those thoughts will assumedly not occur until he no longer has “a whole season to play for still”. By then, the summer transfer window will be over, and the Reds will only have the 34-day-long winter one to recruit a replacement.
Signing a successor ahead of time would be advisable, or the Reds risk repeating what happened with Fabinho last summer by failing to sign not one but two replacements and doing the same 12 months later. Ibrahima Konate is the last centre-back they signed three years ago, happening so long back that the club’s announcement came the day after the Friends reunion episode aired.
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