Liverpool’s troubled start to the campaign has sparked fresh debate around two of the club’s biggest stars — Mohamed Salah and Virgil van Dijk — after both players penned new deals earlier this year. Former Celtic boss Gordon Strachan has now weighed in, questioning whether the Reds made the right call by extending the contracts of their long-serving leaders.
Liverpool’s recent slump — six defeats in their last seven Premier League outings — has dragged them down to 12th place, leaving them behind both Everton and Manchester United, and a staggering 11 points off top-of-the-table Arsenal. Amid that backdrop, last summer’s contract decisions have come under renewed scrutiny.
Both Salah and Van Dijk opted to remain at Anfield, while Trent Alexander-Arnold made his high-profile switch to Real Madrid. The club also went big in the transfer market, bringing in the likes of Alexander Isak, Florian Wirtz, Hugo Ekitike, Milos Kerkez, Jeremie Frimpong, Giorgi Mamardashvili, Giovanni Leoni, Freddie Woodman and Armin Pecsi — with two of those deals topping the £100m mark.
But Strachan believes Liverpool may have misjudged the timing of their renewals.
Speaking to BoyleSports, he admitted he always had doubts:
“There’s this feeling of, ‘What exactly has happened?’ Have Salah and Van Dijk stayed a bit too long? Everyone celebrated when the deals were done, but I wasn’t completely convinced.”
He pointed out that Salah’s extraordinary standards over the last half-decade were always going to be tough to maintain:
“When a player has been that good for so long, anything less looks negative. Nobody realistically thought he was going to reach an even higher level.”
Strachan compared the situation to Sir Alex Ferguson’s ruthlessness at Manchester United, suggesting that knowing when to let big names go is part of long-term success.
He also questioned whether Liverpool’s expensive summer arrivals have truly delivered so far:
“With all the money spent, people thought Liverpool would only improve. But that hasn’t been the case.”
For now, the pressure continues to rise at Anfield — and the decisions made last summer may be scrutinised even more if results don’t turn soon. ⚠️🔥
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