Liverpool sent ominous FSG message over ‘staggeringly stupid’ contract decision

It's now just two months until January, but Liverpool still haven't tied down any of their key players to new contracts.

Virgil van Dijk, Trent Alexander-Arnold and Mohamed Salah will all be free to speak to clubs from abroad in the new year when they enter the last six months of their current deals.

That will now be a huge concern for Liverpool supporters with no sign of the trio coming even close to an agreement with the club.

Arne Slot suggested he wasn't worried about the situation in his press conference ahead of Brighton, but he also didn't issue an update and suggested there was nothing new to report on.

For Boston Red Sox fans, this may feel like a similar situation to what happened to one of their best stars of the modern era.

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Why Mookie Betts offers an ominous look into the future for Liverpool

Once upon a time, Mookie Betts was one of the most exciting talents at Boston Red Sox. He led the club to their first World Series in five years, helping them win the competition in 2018.

However, just one year later, he was traded to the Los Angeles Dodgers in what was a devastating blow for Red Sox fans considering Betts was one of the favourites among the supporter base.

The reason Boston let go of Betts was due to his wage demands, according to journalist Clinton Yates, writing on his column on Andscape with the Red Sox wanting to keep their wage structure flexible and therefore unwilling to pay the sum Betts was asking for.

That decision has come back to haunt the Red Sox with Betts celebrating his second World Series earlier this week with the LA Dodgers.

Meanwhile, Boston haven't won the World Series since Betts left the franchise.

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"Imagine being former Red Sox chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom — who figured that the player who was part of a reignition of a city and squad that waited so long to return to glory didn’t matter as much as payroll flexibility did — and you just let a generational human being walk out of the door over money," Yates wrote in his column.

"A colossally disastrous move that for all we know could end up being as bad as The Babe. Lord knows when Boston will get back to contention. For their sake, let’s hope it’s not another hundred years."

"It’s almost laughable how staggeringly stupid that looks now. It’s like fumbling the best partner you ever had because your mom told you that you could do better. More importantly, the point is that Betts is the superstar hard worker who people try to make up or look for to almost no avail in sports, period, never mind baseball."

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All of this sounds eerily familiar to the current contract situation that surrounds another FSG owned club in Liverpool.

Like Betts at the Red Sox, Liverpool have generational talents in Van Dijk, Salah and Alexander-Arnold.

These are players in their prime years and Liverpool stand at risk of losing them over the question of money rather than focusing on success on the pitch in a decision that could also be described as 'staggeringly stupid.'

If Liverpool fail to extend their deals, it's entirely possible in years to come they will rue that decision. Just as the Boston Red Sox are now ruining their decision to trade Betts.

Let's hope Liverpool can find a different outcome, otherwise the future is ominously bleak.