Former Liverpool defender Dejan Lovren has predicted a one-year contract extension for club captain Virgil van Dijk and said Xabi Alonso could one day become Liverpool manager.
Van Dijk contract prediction
Van Dijk is well inside the final year of his terms at Anfield and said after Sunday's 3-1 win over Crystal Palace that he would be open to extending his near eight-year spell on Merseyside.
Lovren played alongside Van Dijk for around 18 months at Liverpool, winning the Champions League, Club World Cup and Premier League as colleagues before he left for Zenit St Petersburg in Russia in 2020.
The former Croatia international believes the Reds and Netherlands captain is still operating at a level that should see the Anfield hierarchy retain him for another 12 months.
Lovren on Van Dijk's legacy
"It will be strange when Virgil van Dijk leaves Liverpool, but at some point it has to come to an end," Lovren told Hajper. "It’ll be important for him, the fans and the club that he leaves at the right time, if he stays at his level then you can see a one-year extension, but of course he’ll have to keep proving that on the pitch."
"But saying that it’s so important that he gets a good farewell, he deserves it for what he has given to the club for so long, year after year. He has been at the very top."
"He is without doubt one of Liverpool’s greatest ever players. You just need to look at the stats. Look at what he achieved and what he won, it speaks for itself."
"How many times was he up for the Ballon d'Or or in the FIFPro World 11? It’s not just Liverpool, he's top of the tree."
Alonso manager claim
Lovren, who signed for the Reds for £20m from Southampton in 2014, also believes current Chelsea boss Xabi Alonso could still one day take charge of the manager's job at Liverpool.
Alonso developed a reputation as one of the finest young coaches in Europe during a period with Bayer Leverkusen, where he won the Bundesliga and German Cup.
But after leaving Real Madrid in January he was snapped up by Chelsea just two weeks before Arne Slot was relieved of his duties at Anfield on May 30.
Lovren says he can still envisage 2005 Champions League winner Alonso pitching up at his former club, adding: "At one point I also always wanted to see Xabi Alonso at Liverpool.
"It suits him. The style of football suited him when he was here, he played fantastically, everyone knows that."
"But also his mindset and his philosophy of football suit Liverpool. So I will never write him off. I also believe that in the not-too-distant future, he will one day be the manager of Liverpool."
