John Barnes thinks Mohamed Salah and Georginio Wijnaldum will make the same call on their Liverpool futures whether the club win trophies this season or not.
Salah has been consistently linked with a move to Spain to join Barcelona or Real Madrid, while it seems likely that Wijnaldum will opt to join Barcelona on a free transfer at the end of the season.
The Reds have seen their form dip this season as recent back-to-back home defeats leave them seven points behind leaders Manchester City, who have a game in hand on Jurgen Klopp’s men.
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However, Barnes doesn’t think it would be a failure if Liverpool were to end the season trophyless and that it’s unlikely to alter Wijnaldum and Salah’s decision over their future.
Barnes told BonusCodeBets: “If they feel they can go to a better club than Liverpool then that’s up to them but it’s important to remember that the season would not, at all, be a failure if Liverpool weren’t to win anything.
“I don’t think winning a trophy would necessarily mean that players would want to leave Liverpool. Because if we finish somewhere at the top of the table and played as well as we have done, yet didn’t win a trophy, that doesn’t mean that the team has failed.
“Yes, losing to Brighton the other day wasn’t ideal – it’s football and these things happen – but it doesn’t mean that you have to start to write off an entire team.
“If you’re a few points off the top, that shows that you’re consistently challenging each week and you’re performing in a good manner. It’s always about how close you can get to the top of the league, which shows how good you are as a team. The trophies are then the bonus to all that hard work.
“For a player such as Wijnaldum with his contract coming to an end it’s obviously up to him to decide whether he’ll stay or go – but I don’t think that his decision will have anything to do with Liverpool winning the league or not this season.
“At this stage of his career, Wijnaldum would want to be somewhere where’s guaranteed to be played rather than just looking for the big bucks – and if he feels that Liverpool will give his that, then I think he’ll stay – but it’ll be interesting to see how this pans out.”
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