Liverpool’s owners must avoid another PR disaster by ironing out Jordan Henderson’s future – Brian Reade

PSG president Nasser Al-Khelaifi made a daring assertion about Kylian Mbappe a couple of weeks again.

“I shall be clear, Mbappé goes to remain in Paris. We are going to by no means promote him and he won’t ever go away on a free. The place can he go? What membership, when it comes to ambition, can compete with PSG immediately?,” he requested.

It was a pleasant strive at bigging up his plaything nevertheless it’s hardly ambition that pulls the highest gamers to PSG. It’s the wages and inducements. Therefore Al-Khelaifi having the ability to use Qatar’s oil cash to coax three of the perfect “free” brokers accessible this summer time – Gianluigi Donnarumma, Sergio Ramos and Gini Wijnaldum.

Which is why the linking of Jordan Henderson to Paris doesn’t actually add up. Ramos is 35 and Wijnaldum is 31 in December. Angel Di Maria is 33, Ander Herrera is 32 subsequent month and Neymar is 30 in February. Do they really need one other 31-year-old midfielder? Particularly one who has two years left on his contract which means they must pay Liverpool an honest payment plus the large wages to lure him from Anfield.

Would Atletico Madrid, or any of the largest English golf equipment put collectively a monster package deal for 31-year-old Henderson on this local weather? It’s uncertain.

So you possibly can see why Liverpool are in no hurry to offer his agent all the pieces he’s asking for in a brand new deal when the one they’ve ties him up till he’s 33, which means he can’t attain an settlement with one other membership till January 2023.

However would letting this unhealthy feeling fester into subsequent season be a good suggestion for the membership, particularly on the again of dropping a gem in Wijnaldum, who, like Henderson, was pivotal to their latest triumphs? Particularly when it could as soon as extra go in opposition to the desires of Jurgen Klopp who sees his captain as not only a key participant in his system however as an important chief?

Liverpool homeowners FSG are dealing with critical questions on how you can step by step break-up the title-winning facet and herald new blood, and the battering that Covid has given their earnings doesn’t assist. Their mannequin shouldn’t be PSG’s, Chelsea’s or Manchester Metropolis’s.

There are 5 key gamers already 30, or coming as much as that age, whose offers are working out: Virgil Van Dijk, Roberto Firmino, Fabinho, Mo Salah and Sadio Mane. They will’t all be given the lengthy, pricey contracts they demand as a result of the return to the membership wouldn’t be price it. That’s why Wijnaldum’s calls for for a four-year package deal, on double his cash, was by no means going to occur.

Henderson has clearly heard that different contract renewals (together with ones for Alisson, Andy Robertson and Trent Alexander-Arnold) are taking desire over his with improved phrases on supply. Therefore the leak that there’s a giant hole between what he thinks he’s price and Liverpool’s thought of a short-term deal depending on appearances. Somebody is clearly making an attempt to pressure the membership’s hand by going public together with his discontent.

And as a lot as you possibly can see why Liverpool would prioritise tying down youthful and extra globally sought-after gamers, Henderson’s state of affairs wants addressing. He might not possess the ability of Salah or Van Dijk however he’s nonetheless massively worthwhile as a enjoying and galvanizing pressure.

Each events have to see sense and provide you with a compromise as a result of, after ten impeccable years, Henderson is owed that. Hypothesis over the captain’s future can’t be allowed to float into subsequent season threatening disharmony within the dressing room and disquiet among the many followers.

The Boston-based homeowners have scored too many personal objectives of late by not studying the room 3,000 miles away. That is one other PR catastrophe within the making that shouldn’t take an excessive amount of goodwill to unravel.

Get it sorted and transfer on.