Liverpool’s star players will be big targets for many this summer.
Liverpool sensation Mohamed Salah is unsurprisingly in the running to capture the Ballon d’Or, although one particular legend on Merseyside thinks it may not be the best thing that could happen for the club.
John Aldridge, who spent two years with the club but is still considered to be an all-time favourite for some, made an interesting point in his recent column for The Irish Independent.
“As we have seen in recent years with Luis Suarez and Philippe Coutinho, success on this scale has consequences and I suspect it won’t be long before we see Salah being linked with a move to Real Madrid,” Aldridge told the Irish Independent.
“If he takes Liverpool close to Champions League success and then shines in the World Cup with Egypt, his status will rise to potentially unmanageable levels from Liverpool’s perspective.”
As cut and dry as this may seem, it is something that really does need to be rectified if the Reds want to make any kind of progress over the next few years. Unlike back in their glory days, every time they seem to be challenging among Europe’s elite, they are struck down with inquests for their top stars.
You have to question who is to blame for selling these players on, and also, why the process takes so long. If these names want to go somewhere new then that is fine, but with the likes of Coutinho and Suarez, the saga dragged on to the point where the fans were becoming unbelievably frustrated.
While they have been able to reinvest some of their finances to improve the quality of the squad, that is not the issue here. The real issue is that Liverpool need to stop resigning themselves to being a feeder club for the likes of Barcelona, and they need to be much more aggressive with their transfer strategy.
It is a never-ending chain that begins at the lowest level, and it needs to stop. Whether that means altering some of the rules or doing more to encourage players to stay, it will benefit the game as a whole if teams like Liverpool are able to build a real foundation.
Some will argue that the Reds deserve it given they do the same thing to the likes of Southampton, but two wrongs do not make a right.
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