The SIGNINGS Liverpool sacrificed for Van Dijk and Salah mega deals

Liverpool are ending the season with their tails in the air. Not only have the club succeeded in winning their 20th top-flight title, they have tied down Mohamed Salah and Virgil van Dijk to new contracts.

It means the pair will lead Liverpool into a glorious new era under Arne Slot - with each of them now contracted to 2027. Liverpool can plan with a degree more certainty, knowing that Salah and Van Dijk will be around for a couple of seasons more.

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But those renewals haven’t come cheap. Salah’s deal has been reported to be worth up to £400k per week while Van Dijk’s salary was estimated in the same bracket by David Ornstein.

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Those are MAMMOTH deals; only Erling Haaland earns more than Salah in the entire Premier League while Van Dijk is comfortably the continent’s top-earning defender.

That’s over £40m per annum gross just on two contracts and commitments like those are bound to take a toll.

Liverpool have got the fifth-highest wage bill in Europe’s top five leagues. And, so soon after missing out on Champions League football, the club’s financial picture hasn’t exactly been rosy of late.

No doubt new commercial deals with the likes of Japan Airlines, the new kit supplier deal with Adidas and the added capacity at Anfield will all add to Liverpool’s bottom line.

One in, one out at Anfield?

But it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say the Reds are operating close to capacity when it comes to salaries and they will again be watching net spend closely.

Even with the likely departure of Trent Alexander-Arnold, it’s probable that we see players leave before others can be added to the squad.

That appeared to be the case last summer - with the sales of Bobby Clark, Sepp van den Berg and Fabio Carvalho coming close to matching the outlays on Federico Chiesa and Giorgi Mamardashvili.

Fans have long speculated the FSG operate on a one-in, one-out basis and confirmation came in a recent article by Paul Joyce for the Times.

Liverpool require summer clearout

“There will be changes in personnel as they look to build on the success of this campaign, but Liverpool’s strategy, in contrast to some of their rivals, has been quality over quantity in the transfer market,” he wrote.

“This allows them to then allocate resources to extend the lucrative contracts of players such as Van Dijk and Salah.”

And so it looks like there was never a question of Liverpool adding to the ranks last summer or in January while the deals for Van Dijk and Salah remained unresolved.

Richard Hughes needed to tidy up those deals in order to know exactly what he would have to spend elsewhere. This is not fantasy football - where one big signing can be lavished after the next. Liverpool were living on a far stricter budget.

What happens this summer?

There is bound to be a clearout. We could see Caoimhin Kelleher, Kostas Tsimikas, Joe Gomez, Jarell Quansah, Wataru Endo, Tyler Morton. Luis Diaz, Federico Chiesa, Darwin Nunez and Diogo Jota all leave.

That would free up sizeable resources in salary - as well as adding to the summer transfer funds.

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And Liverpool fans have long had to adapt to this reality. Sell to buy. Even though they have won the title - and added to the bottom line - don’t expect anything different.