Has there ever been a club in a situation as unique as one Liverpool find themselves in these final, “clutch” weeks of the Premier League season?
Twelve points clear and with a fixture list that suggests they can stroll to only their second title in 36 years, Arne Slot‘s side are edging closer to the Premier League crown that their champagne football fully merits.
Yet as machinations over Trent Alexander-Arnold’s apparently imminent move to Real Madrid continued this week, it’s impossible to escape the feeling that Liverpool will hurtle into a period of unprecedented uncertainty when the red pyro smoke clears in May.
Anxieties that were parked as Slot effortlessly led Liverpool to the top of the Premier League have also resurfaced after bruising defeats to Paris Saint-Germain and Newcastle United before the international week.
As well as the three main men heading into the final weeks of their current contracts, Liverpool have work to do upgrading a squad that has barely been touched for a year.
At No 9, left-back and centre-back – regardless of what happens with Mohamed Salah and Virgil van Dijk – they need better and that may mean player trading in other positions.
Dan Clubbe, a presenter on Redmen TV, sums the situation up succinctly: “We’re fast approaching an end of the season that looks both glorious and terrifying.”
Inside football, there is fascination at how Richard Hughes – the club’s director of football – and Michael Edwards, Liverpool’s chief executive and the sharpest mind in the sport, approach the situation.
“They’re the best in the game,” one rival Premier League director of football tells The i Paper.
“Their combined contacts, knowledge and expertise is really impressive so I’d be very surprised if there wasn’t a bigger plan in motion at Liverpool. Whatever we see on the outside, experience suggests you should trust the process.”
Having been effectively Jurgen Klopp’s domain in the German’s final year, there is no doubt that Liverpool is now run by the Edwards brains trust. And they have been reliably right about enough things – including Slot – to have earned the trust of supporters heading into a pivotal summer.
But, barring any last minute surprises, the departure of Alexander-Arnold to the Bernabeu is undoubtedly a blow. There is pressure on to soften it with the retention of Van Dijk and Salah, with more positive noises about the ongoing contract negotiations for that duo.
“It’s hard not to place your trust in them,” Clubbe says. “For all their faults, FSG [Fenway Sports Group] do tend to get best in class.
“Bringing back Michael Edwards was that, you’d like to think Richard Hughes is that because Michael Edwards wanted him and Arne Slot looks to be that as well. So as far as the summer is daunting, it’s exciting as well.”
Slot’s success means they have earned that faith. One of the reasons he was favoured for the job was that he scored so highly on Liverpool’s data analysis for improving players.
Throughout the squad there is evidence of that: Ryan Gravenberch and Alexis Mac Allister are two whose numbers have significantly improved this season, along with Salah.
Anfield insiders have been highly impressed by Slot and and are convinced he will join the small band of coaches considered elite in the coming years. Now he needs to be repaid with reinforcements and re-signed contracts.
Will that happen? One recruitment executive who has had multiple dealings with the club summed Liverpool up as “taking forever to make a decision” and the methodical way they work has seen them miss out on some targets, including Jude Bellingham while he was at Borussia Dortmund.
But that patience does not mean things aren’t happening behind-the-scenes. One source characterised Liverpool’s work on Milos Kerkez as “meticulous and proper due diligence”, making a mockery of the social media theory that highly rated director of football Hughes has been asleep on the job since being head-hunted by Edwards a year ago.
The Reds have been working through a three-man shortlist for a player to push Andy Robertson at left-back. Nuno Mendes, of Paris Saint-Germain, joined Bayern Munich‘s Alphonso Davies in signing a new contract which leaves Kerkez as the last man standing. But The i Paper has been told they also retain admiration for Ajax‘s Jorrel Hato.
Owners Fenway Sports Group are also now at an advanced stage as they look to broker a deal for another club and construct a multi-club model that will have benefits for Liverpool.
The appointment of Pedro Marques, described by those who know him as “diligent, strategy-focused, a great guy to have”, in the summer was a sign of their intent on that front and he has been leading a data-driven process to identify alternative clubs. Sources tell The i Paper they now have “three or four options”.
Crucially, FSG have a non-negotiable that the club must be playing in European competition, which has reduced the pool of options and also suggests they want to bring a team of considerable heft into the group.
The theory behind all of this is that Liverpool will prosper in the long-term. But there is surely short-term glory just around the corner.
Reds legend Graeme Souness doesn’t subscribe to the idea that Liverpool’s season is now a qualified success after tumbling out of the Champions League.
“They’ve been fantastic,” he says. “When I played for Liverpool we always put more stock in winning the league than anything else.
“It says more about you as an individual, you’ve weathered the difficult times better than anyone else, as an individual and as a team. And that stands true for this team.”
Souness suggests the aim for them now is to rediscover the “aggression” that has seen other teams wilt in matches against them this season.
“For all the fabulous football they’ve played, they’ve had an aggressive attitude. Other teams have thrown in the towel against them first,” he says.
He believes this title would be even more special than the one won in 2019. “Look, I was at the Chelsea game where they got the trophy with no one in the stadium and that was my thought: you don’t know what you’re missing,” Souness says.
“These players, if they win it, the ones who will do it again will realise what they missed first time around. Forget anything else, to do it in front of that crowd is very, very special.”
Graeme Souness was talking to The i Paper as he urges fans to join the British Heart Foundation’s Every Minute Matters campaign to persuade people to learn life-saving CPR
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