Liverpool's charge to a second title of the Premier League era has been played out under the shadow of three contract sagas at once, with senior players potentially heading for the Anfield exit.
Mo Salah, Trent Alexander-Arnold and Virgil van Dijk were all set to be out of contract in the summer, a state of affairs that would have left manager Arne Slot with some major puzzles to solve ahead of next season.
The Reds are expected to lose England right-back Alexander-Arnold, who is gearing up for a widely reported free transfer to Spanish giants Real Madrid.
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When that news broke, Alexander-Arnold's relationship with a section of Liverpool fans started to crack too. The Liverpool-born star is a one-club man who's been at his boyhood club for more than 20 years but his decision to pursue a new challenge after winning it all at Anfield hasn't gone down especially well.
The outcome of Salah's negotiations has been more popular. The Egyptian's lucrative new contract was announced on Friday and fans are thrilled.
Alexander-Arnold's reaction was inevitably under the microscope and the news that he liked Salah's Instagram post marking the forward's new deal met with a mixed response from fans.
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Some posters on the r/LiverpoolFC subreddit interpreted the like as a hidden message about Alexander-Arnold's own future, while others pointed out that it was a like on social media and doesn't indicate anything at all about his impending move to the Spanish capital.
"Yes but when did he like this? And do the numbers in the timestamp when he liked it correlate closer to Liverpool numerology or Madrid?" asked one user knowingly.
"Gonna massively over interpret this, thanks!" confessed another.
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"I’m genuinely looking forward to him leaving so we can move past this boring saga. As soon as the new season starts it will completely forgotten about. I just don’t understand why people are getting so worked up about it. We will replace him and we will be fine," wrote one circumspect Red.
The most downvoted comment? "Lizard boy."
Ultimately, Reddit fans gonna Reddit. Nobody is under any illusion about the depth of meaning of an Instagram like.
It's just a bit of fun and if Alexander-Arnold liking Salah's post means he's "saying there's a chance" then why not enjoy it?
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"Well he is a scouser and even if he leaves, he wants the club to do well? It’s just a social media post, come on, no need to dwell on it…"
Topics: Liverpool, Liverpool Transfer News & Rumours, Mohamed Salah, Trent Alexander-Arnold
Chris Nee