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The stage is set for Liverpool to clinch their second title of the Premier League era - and then there is fear for what comes afterwards.

Approaching a summer in which the contracts of Mohamed Salah, Virgil van Dijk and Trent Alexander-Arnold are all set to expire, fans are getting twitchy just thinking about whether their seemingly inevitable league triumph will be the start of a new dynasty or a final flourish for three of their most important players.

The prospect of losing all three certainly won't be helping manager Arne Slot get to sleep at night, regardless of how successful he has been in his first season of English football.

But there is another way of looking at things.

And that involves acknowledging that the uncertainty surrounding the futures of Salah, Van Dijk and Alexander-Arnold may be one of the primary factors in Liverpool separating themselves from the chasing pack.

All three of them are enjoying a strong season - Salah perhaps his strongest ever, as he threatens to break the Premier League's single-season goals and assists records in the same scintillating campaign.

Van Dijk looks just as much the towering figure he always has at 33 years old, and Alexander-Arnold has set up six league goals from right-back.

It raises the question of whether all of them are performing to such a high level because of their contract uncertainty.

Alexander-Arnold may be playing for a dream move to Real Madrid, Salah could be trying to earn a mega-money contract extension on Merseyside, and Van Dijk might be attempting to stave off Anfield bosses signing a younger centre-back in the summer.

The possibility of free agency still looms over Slot and Liverpool.

But if the precariousness of their trio's situations has helped propel them to a title, it may all have been worth it - particularly if a couple or all of them extend.

Former Newcastle United and Manchester City goalkeeper Shay Given raised a good point this week when he said: "I think their contract situations have actually played into Arne Slot's hands, because they are either playing for a new contract at Liverpool or they are playing for their next contract at another club.

"Every single week they are playing to their maximum and to their best.

I think that has helped them and galvanised them, it has brought them together."


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