Barcelona walk away from Liverpool star after absurd wage demands

Liverpool are still in contract talks with their best players.

The negotiations have stretched over the whole season, with the news not going away anytime soon. Liverpool are set to lose Mohamed Salah, Virgil Van Dijk and Trent Alexander-Arnold in the summer. All three are out of contract in the coming months. The reds have pushed to get the trio to commit long term, but nothing concrete has come out of these contract talks.

This week, it has been widely reported that Trent is close to signing with Real Madrid. The defender has been in contact with the Champions League holders over the last year, and is now set to make the move to Spain.

Quiz: Can you name the team Liverpool sold these players to?

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Luis Suarez

Barcelona will not be signing Liverpool star

Liverpool are known to be difficult to deal with when it comes to contract extensions. It happened when Mohamed Salah extended his last contract back in 2022. It took a long back and forth between club and player before the deal was signed.

This could cause Liverpool to lose three of their best players this summer. Fortunately for the reds, Barcelona have backed off of signing Virgil Van Dijk after his wage demands. According to Fichajes, the La Liga side cannot afford the Dutch international’s current wages with their financial restraints. And with Van Dijk seeking a pay rise, the prospect of moving to Spain continues to dwindle.

The report claims that Barcelona will keep on monitoring the situation, and may move players around to create space in their salary structure.

Will Van Dijk’s wages put off contract talks?

Liverpool captain Virgil Van Dijk currently earns around £220,000-a-week at Anfield according to reports. This ranks him as the club’s second highest paid player behind Mohamed Salah. Assuming the defender wants a similar wage to the Egyptian forward, then he would be earning between £300,000 and £350,000 a week. That means the 33-year old would earn a huge pay rise of close to £100,000.

There are questions if Liverpool can afford these wages, but the recent deal with Adidas and the prize money from this year’s Champions League should be enough to cushion the financial blow. Van Dijk has continued to perform at the top level, and has earned a wage increase.