There are plenty of contract negotiations going on at
Liverpool. For sporting director Michael Edwards, a big part of his work this summer involves retaining the club’s elite talent and protecting their value.
Goalkeeper Alisson is expected to sign a new long-term contract before the start of the new season, as is fellow Brazilian
Fabinho. Liverpool are also looking to agree lucrative extensions with
Virgil van Dijk,
Mohamed Salah and
Sadio Mane. They all have deals that run until the summer of 2023. Full-backs
Trent Alexander-Arnold and
Andrew Robertson have a year longer but their ongoing importance is also set to be recognised.
However, it has gone under the radar somewhat that another inspirational figure has entered the final two years of his existing contract.
For long-serving Liverpool captain
Jordan Henderson, the future is far from certain.
The Athletic understands that while talks over an extension have taken place during this off-season period, no real progress has been made.
Negotiations haven’t broken down and sources stress that dialogue is ongoing but it’s both a complicated and sensitive situation. The reality is that Liverpool’s owner Fenway Sports Group (FSG) currently has bigger priorities to address in the squad.
Henderson played a crucial role in Liverpool winning the league (Photo: Laurence Griffiths/Getty Images)
And the uncertainty leaves the door open for suitors of the talismanic midfielder, who celebrated a decade of service to the club last month, when he also turned 31, and is currently on holiday following his run with England to the final of Euro 2020.
There are parallels with
Georginio Wijnaldum, who failed to agree fresh terms and ended up leaving when his contract ran out this summer
before signing a three-year deal with Paris Saint-Germain.
Liverpool would have considered selling Wijnaldum when he entered his final year last summer to avoid the prospect of losing him for nothing but no such offers were forthcoming.
Wijnaldum is 31 in November and FSG, who have a policy of investing in youth, simply wouldn’t sanction either the wages or the length of deal he was looking for to extend his five-year stay at Anfield. Henderson will be 33 by the time his current contract expires.
PSG coach Mauricio Pochettino is understood to be an admirer of Henderson’s, and the former
Tottenham manager is keeping a close eye on developments.
The same goes for Atletico Madrid. Henderson remains good friends with Luis Suarez, who would relish the prospect of being reunited with his former Liverpool team-mate. PSG and Atletico have previous for signing vastly experienced players on big wages, although whether Atletico currently have the finances to do such a deal is unclear.
The way in which Liverpool allowed Wijnaldum’s contract to run down has alerted the market to the fact that Henderson could be available. Jurgen Klopp’s admiration and loyalty to his captain — both as a player and a person — is unwavering. They have a close bond. Klopp credits him with fostering the spirit and unity that helped propel Liverpool to
Champions League and
Premier League glory. Klopp views Henderson as a role model who sets the standards every day.
If this was Klopp’s call alone, then talks over an extension would have been a formality and an agreement would already have been signed. But Wijnaldum’s exit underlined that the Liverpool manager doesn’t have complete control when it comes to contracts. If he did, the Netherlands international would still be at Anfield because Klopp was desperate to keep him.
Yes, Klopp has an input in the process but ultimately the final say on financial matters rests with FSG president Mike Gordon and Edwards. Liverpool’s ownership doesn’t simply do whatever Klopp wants and the manager accepts that as a healthy state of affairs. Wijnaldum knew how highly the German rated him but left because he didn’t feel valued enough by the club itself. There was disappointment but no animosity or bitterness, as shown by the warm send-off he was given.
For Gordon and Edwards, it’s a delicate balancing act. They have to take the emotion out of these situations.
For a club with a self-sustaining business model, deciding where best to channel their resources is vital. They have to make tough decisions for the greater good of the club, especially as the pandemic has damaged revenue streams and had an impact on the kind of terms they can offer.
Put simply, they can’t just allow the squad to grow old together.
Mane, Salah,
Roberto Firmino,
Joel Matip and
Xherdan Shaqiri are all 29. Van Dijk and
Thiago are 30, Henderson is a year older and
James Milner, who is set to be out of contract next summer, is 35. Experience is important, especially to help youngsters such as
Curtis Jones, 20, and
Harvey Elliott, 18, bed in but there needs to be the right blend.
Klopp and Henderson are close but the manager does not have full control over contracts (Photo: Laurence Griffiths/Getty Images)
Henderson is a huge presence in the dressing room. Vice-captain Milner is another whose long-term future is in doubt but Liverpool are blessed when it comes to leaders.
Van Dijk, Salah and Robertson all wear the armband for their country.
A big part of the FSG strategy this summer surrounds player retention. Edwards and Gordon are trying to shape what the squad is going to look like for the next three or four years. Liverpool have bought 22-year-old centre-back
Ibrahima Konate from RB Leipzig for £35 million in this window but they aren’t embarking on a major spending spree. Any other business that follows in the current window will be heavily linked to the sales of fringe players such as
Harry Wilson and
Marko Grujic.
Instead, FSG views 2022 as the year to really start refreshing and regenerating the squad. It believes that by then, the financial impact of the pandemic will have receded and the market will be more settled.
Next summer, as things stand,
Naby Keita and
Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain will be among those entering the final year of their existing deals.
So, where does all that leave Liverpool’s Champions League and Premier League-winning captain? Is FSG really committed to players of his profile?
“It’s the contract that’s been spoken about the least but probably tells the biggest story. This is a critical summer for Jordan,” a source familiar with the situation tells
The Athletic.
Henderson himself has kept his own counsel. It’s not his way to agitate. He’s too respectful and puts the team and the club first. But what’s clear is that this isn’t about money, this is about feeling wanted. He knows Klopp’s plan for him, but what about the club? What role do they see for him going forward?
Henderson doesn’t want to be kept around just to give stirring pep talks and help new players settle in. He doesn’t want Liverpool to renew his contract because they think it’s the right thing to do but because they believe he still has much to offer on the pitch in the pursuit of more trophies.
Former Liverpool team-mate and close friend
Adam Lallana recently spoke about he feels Henderson is under-appreciated as a player. There is so much focus on his leadership that it detracts from his qualities as an elite midfielder.
Henderson won the 2020 Football Writers’ Association Footballer of the Year award having predominantly played as a No 8 in Liverpool’s title-winning side. Last season then showed his versatility, as he played mainly as a No 6 and filled in at centre-back due to injuries before suffering a torn adductor muscle in his groin, which required surgery in February. The club’s medical and sports science staff were hugely impressed by
his dedication and commitment in rehab that enabled him to get back fit in time to play at the Euros.
Henderson, who is eight short of 400 Liverpool appearances, is convinced that his most productive years are ahead of him. He believes he can play at the highest level into his mid-30s and is not interested in a managed decline.
His importance to Liverpool is underlined by the stats.
Going back to the start of 2016-17 and Klopp’s first full season in charge, Liverpool have lost 13 of the 116 league games where Henderson has been in the line-up — that’s 11 per cent. Of the 56 league games they have started without him over that period, they have been beaten 10 times – 18 per cent.
Liverpool have scored an average of 1.27 goals per game when he has started. That figure drops to 0.59 goals per game when he hasn’t.
There are certainly lessons to be learned from how the latter stages of Steven Gerrard’s Liverpool career were handled.
Gerrard was 34 when he announced, in January 2015, that he would be leaving his boyhood club when his contract expired that summer. Disappointment was caused by what Gerrard felt was a half-hearted attempt by the club to keep him on board.
A meeting between his agent Struan Marshall and then-chief executive Ian Ayre to discuss a new deal lasted just 15 minutes. He was offered a one-year extension, but with a 40 per cent wage cut. It was heavily incentivised with performance-related bonuses but then-manager Brendan Rodgers had already informed Gerrard that his game time was going to be reduced.
“It seemed as if I wanted them more than they wanted me,” Gerrard wrote in his autobiography. Gerrard ended his playing career with an 18-month stint at LA Galaxy in
Major League Soccer, later admitting he regretted not staying at Liverpool for an extra year as he would have got the chance to play under Klopp.
Henderson hasn’t rejected an offer from Liverpool but, clearly, if what is currently on the table was acceptable then a deal would already have been signed.
Klopp’s captain, who is due to report back for pre-season training in early August after a post-Euro 2020 holiday, is too highly respected to just let the situation drag on for another 12 months and allow his deal to enter its final year.
Henderson was signed by Damien Comolli in 2011 (Photo: John Lang/Liverpool FC via Getty Images)
It’s felt by some that if Liverpool don’t actively engage on terms that are deemed fair to someone who has achieved so much, and given so much to the cause, then a departure could become more likely than a renewal.
Football clubs have to evolve without dwelling on sentiment, while a player’s career is short and they understandably want to maximise what they can get out of it. You can see it from both sides.
As key personnel at Liverpool sign new contracts in the coming weeks and months, it will be intriguing to see what happens with Henderson.
When he signed his last contract, in September 2018, he talked about wanting to stay at Anfield for the rest of his career. “There is no other place in the world I would rather play football. I want to be here for as long as I can be,” he said.
Despite the trophies he has lifted and the immense sacrifices he has made over the past decade, whether he gets that opportunity is now unclear.
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