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What could happen next season if Virgil van Dijk, Mohamed Salah, and Trent Alexander-Arnold all left Liverpool this summer

With no contract resolutions yet to be made for Mohamed Salah, Virgil van Dijk or Trent Alexander-Arnold, the possibility of Liverpool entering next season without the trio is growing.

They are all set to become free agents come July.

Despite early exits from the Champions League and FA Cup, alongside their Carabao Cup final defeat, Liverpool have been almost perfect in the Premier League.



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But Arne Slot's side wouldn't be 12 points clear at the top if it wasn't for the likes of Salah in attack and Van Dijk at the back, so with the two talismen, along with Alexander-Arnold, out of contract in the summer, there are big fears among Reds fans over how their team could perform without them next season.

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Alexander-Arnold has been at the centre of ongoing transfer speculation, with Real Madrid desperate to sign him, while there's no doubt that some of Europe's biggest clubs will be keeping tabs on Salah and Van Dijk, too, if new deals were not to be signed.

So, if the trio were all to depart, how could Liverpool get on and who would they sign to replace them?

To complete this simulation, we used Football Manager 2024 to allow Salah's, Van Dijk's and Alexander-Arnold's contracts to expire, with the trio all departing the club.

We then simulated the 2025 summer transfer window and the rest of the 2025/26 season to see what could happen.

Firstly, where did the departing trio go?

As expected, Alexander-Arnold made his way to Real Madrid, Van Dijk made a move to Paris Saint-Germain, while Mohamed Salah made arguably the most shocking transfer of the three, with the Egyptian rejecting a switch to Saudi Arabia in favour of the MLS and the New York Red Bulls.

There were more departures as well, with Darwin Nunez, Caoimhin Kelleher, Kostas Tsimikas, Ben Doak, Tyler Morton and Federico Chiesa all leaving the club, raising a total of £137million in sales.

The biggest signings made in the summer transfer window were Goncalo Inacio, Bryan Mbeumo, Anthony Gordon, Angelo Stiller, Marcus Thruam, Antonio Silva and Miguel Gutierrez, with the seven arriving for a total fee of £309million.

At the end of the 2025/26 season, Football Manager 2024 put together an overall best Liverpool XI, based on performances, statistics, and other metrics.

This is what it looked like:

Liverpool's best XI from the 2025/26 season(Image: Football Manager 24)

Full Liverpool best XI: (4-2-4): Alisson; Bradley, Inacio, Konate, Robertson; Stiller, Mac Allister; Szoboszlai, Thuram, Jota, Gakpo.

A host of the new signings failed to make the Liverpool best XI, including the likes of Mbeumo and Gordon, with the likes of Cody Gakpo, Diogo Jota and Dominik Szoboszlai preferred, with the latter making most of his appearances off the right.

Thuram was a hit for the Reds with the Frenchman scoring 31 goals across all competitions, while Jota had one of his best seasons for Liverpool, scoring 25 times, including 18 in the Premier League.

With the new signings, Liverpool were involved in a title battle throughout the season, and at the end of the campaign, they narrowly missed out on being champions.

Liverpool finished second in the Premier League(Image: Football Manager 24)

A 2-2 draw away to Brighton on the last day of the season saw the Reds finish one point behind Manchester City in first.

Pep Guardiola's side also drew on the final day but Liverpool missed a glorious chance to win the league at the death.

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Twenty-four wins, 10 draws and four defeats saw Slot's men end the campaign with 82 points, one fewer than City and one more than Arsenal in third.

Liverpool's best cup run saw them reach the semi-finals of the Champions League, but a 4-3 aggregate loss to Barcelona led to their exit from the competition.

A 2-0 defeat to Arsenal ended their FA Cup campaign in the quarter-finals, while a 2-1 reverse against West Ham United saw the Reds eliminated from the Carabao Cup in the fourth round.


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