Former England goalkeeper Paul Robinson has said that Liverpool should give Virgil van Dijk a seven-year contract at Anfield, believing that the defender could still have a massive influence in the dressing room when he reaches 35.
According to Football Insider, the 28-year-old has recently entered talks with Anfield bosses about a new contract at Liverpool which is reportedly worth more than £50m in wages and bonuses and would take his basic weekly wage to £200,000, a vast increase on his current £125,000-a-week figure.
Robinson believes that Van Dijk could easily be a huge figure at the club for another seven years and cited Vincent Kompany and Cristiano Ronaldo as examples of veteran players whose longevity has enabled them to remain key figures for their respective teams.
The ex-Tottenham ‘keeper told Football Insider: “I would give him a five-year deal right now – with the option of a further two. Van Dijk is extremely fit and strong. Look at Ronaldo – the age he is playing onto and the level he is playing at. He is 28, I would have no hesitation giving him a contract until he is 35.
“The impact he has had on the team and the players around him, even if he gets to 35 and is not playing regularly, to have somebody like that around the dressing room… You compare it to Vincent Kompany. You look at Manchester City and the impact he had even when he did not play – the difference of having a captain and a leader in the dressing room. I would tie him down for as long as possible.”
While it may be hard to accurately predict what could happen to a footballer’s career seven years down the line, Robinson’s claim about Van Dijk is not without justification. The Dutch centre-back has indeed had a massive influence at Liverpool, winning the PFA Player of the Year award last season and helping them to achieve the best defensive record in the Premier League with just 22 goals conceded.
Also, the “extremely fit and strong” description of the 28-year-old is a fair one, as he has been ever-present in the Premier League and Champions League this season and started every league game in 2018/19, playing for all but 35 minutes across the entire campaign. In more than two years at Anfield, the only game he has missed through injury was the 4-3 win over Manchester City in January 2018 just after he joined the Reds, with Jurgen Klopp not risking him due to a hamstring strain.
Robinson has picked two good examples of players who have been influential in the twilight of their careers. Injuries may have limited Kompany’s involvement in his final two years at Manchester City but, soon after his 33rd birthday, he still came up with a pivotal long-range winner against Leicester last May as his team pipped Liverpool to the Premier League title. Ronaldo, meanwhile, turned 35 last month but has still hit 25 goals for Juventus this season, the 11th in a row in which he has scored 20 or more in a league campaign.
Van Dijk is a bastion of consistency in Liverpool’s defence, playing his part in their near-flawless Premier League campaign and being called upon every week thanks to his standard of performances and consistent level of fitness. As Kompany and Ronaldo have shown, great players can continue to have a huge impact well into their 30s, so Robinson is quite right in his reasons to call for the Reds to hand Van Dijk a long-term deal.
Liverpool fans, do you agree with Robinson’s appeal for Van Dijk to be given a long-term contract at Anfield? Share your thoughts in the comments section below!
