Liverpool will offer Virgil van Dijk a new contract.
The astonishing terms will keep the Dutchman tied to Anfield for the remainder of his career, according to Wayne Veysey from Football Insider.
After Timo Werner slipped away from Jurgen Klopp’s clutches because Liverpool couldn’t afford his transfer fee and salary, there is some good news on offer to fans.
If Veysey is to be believed, the club are willing to splash the cash to make sure Virgil van Dijk never leaves Merseyside while he can still play football.
Football Insider wrote that a mysterious club source has informed them that Liverpool are willing to offer van Dijk a contract in excess of £200,000-a-week. This dwarfs his current pay packet of £125,000-a-week, plus bonuses.
According to Paul Gorst at the Liverpool Echo, the Reds already have one of the highest wage bills in the Premier League and this will just pour more fuel on the fire.
Tying down van Dijk to a longer deal will have two positives, however. It will enable them to plan for the future in the knowledge that the cornerstone of the defence will be around for the next five years, and it’ll make it nearly impossible to buy the Dutchman from them.
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The money Liverpool will recoup if they sell van Dijk after he signs this mooted deal would make the numbers look sensible.
Fan reaction towards a contract that could end up costing as much as £50 million throughout it’s lifetime is hard to judge. That’s almost the fee that would have secured the signing of Timo Werner, which the club said they couldn’t afford.
Incidentally, it’s also around the amount that Adama Traore might cost – who has been linked with a Merseyside move over the weekend.
Perhaps they can’t, but that doesn’t explain why they might be planning a new tranche of expensive contracts for players approaching their 30s.
Georginio Wijnaldum, who is the last of the first team squad sitting on his old deal, has been brought back to the negotiating table and that’s a good sign.
It would have been shoddy work from a Liverpool point of view to allow him to leave for free after he’s given so much to the cause and remains a fairly high value asset.
Virgil van Dijk’s new deal will be a hard sell to a lot of supporters, but given the success they’ve brought to Anfield they’re due some trust in their process.