How Liverpool x Adidas deal affects Trent Alexander-Arnold contract talks

Trent Alexander-Arnold's future - perhaps the biggest mystery Liverpool fans have been trying to solve all season.

The star right-back has been subject to interest from Real Madrid for a couple of years now, but when the season began, signifying the last year of his current Liverpool contract, the speculation went through the roof.

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At 26, he has only ever played for his boyhood club and since he has won everything available to him under Jurgen Klopp, the opportunity to play somewhere abroad will have been an itch Trent will have been trying desperately not to scratch.

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Alongside speaking to Trent, Liverpool have been negotiating new deals for Mohamed Salah and Virgil van Dijk to extend their stays on Merseyside, but with just nine games to go in the Premier League, there have been no reported breakthroughs.

As such, we do not know if the club is still optimistic of finding an agreement, or if the players' futures are already decided, but for now, we're left to speculate.

Might the Adidas deal become a deciding factor?

Earlier this week, Liverpool officially confirmed what fans had been largely aware of for some time - that the famous Adidas stripes will be returning to the Reds' shirts from next season, as a monumental kit-supplier deal had been reached.

This means that Nike will no longer sponsor the club from next season, allowing fans to dream of future kits that might take nostalgia on board, using inspiration from past times where Liverpool were successful and wearing the Adidas brand.

A number of iconic kits were created by the sports manufacturer and the prospect of seeing Alexander-Arnold on the back of a shirt that looks not too dissimilar to some that Steven Gerrard wore in his day is tantalising.

But despite the positivity around the shirts that will be worn next season, a despair lingers in the background that Salah, Trent and Van Dijk might not even be at the club when Adidas' deal begins to take effect.

Salah and Trent wear Adidas

However, both Trent and Salah are known ambassadors of Adidas, working as flagship athletes, whether it be donning the brand's football boots or appearing in TV adverts, the players are more than familiar with Liverpool's new kit supplier.

So what does that mean? Well, both Salah and Van Dijk are considered the two players most likely to re-sign with the club, although Michael Edwards and his fellow executives will need to act sooner rather than later if it is still possible for a new deal to be reached with them.

With Trent, however, the situation remains complicated. Real Madrid are already one of Adidas' elite clubs, so he would still be able to work with the brand on a close basis if he chose to leave Liverpool.

As such, it seems as though the deal will make no difference to Trent's future, although the money that Liverpool are expected to receive from Adidas in the agreement is substantially more than the club received working with Nike, so it's plausible that contracts are more feasible than they were earlier in the season.

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Overall, the short answer is we don't know. Anfield Watch were informed that a deal for Van Dijk was likely earlier in the season, but Liverpool have decided to keep their cards very close to their chest, but if the problem with extending players' contracts was a disagreement on financial terms, then it might just be that Liverpool were biding their time until the situation became clearer.

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