Virgil van Dijk reveals progress with Liverpool contract negotiations

Liverpool captain Virgil van Dijk has revealed there has been “progress” made in his contract negotiations amid continued speculation over his future at the club.

Van Dijk’s deal is set to expire at the end of the season, with teammates Mohamed Salah and Trent Alexander-Arnold also coming to the end of their contracts in June.

While a source has told ESPN Real Madrid are confident of landing Alexander-Arnold on a free transfer, there remains optimism on Merseyside that Van Dijk and Salah will sign new deals, with the Netherlands international providing a positive update following Liverpool’s 3-2 defeat to Fulham on Sunday.

“There is progress, yeah,” the 33-year-old said.

Asked whether that means he will still be at Anfield next season, Van Dijk added: “I don’t know, we’ll see. Listen, these are internal discussions and we’ll see.

“I love the club, I love the fans and they were there for us again and we wanted to reward them. But I want them to be there Sunday again [against West Ham United] and make the stadium an amazing venue like always for us.”

Liverpool suffered their second Premier League defeat of the season against Fulham on Sunday, with goals from Ryan Sessegnon, Alex Iwobi and Rodrigo Muniz cancelling out Alexis Mac Allister’s early strike, before Luis Díaz pulled one back for the visitors in the second half.

Arne Slot’s side remain 11 points clear at the top of the table, and Van Dijk has backed his team to bounce back from Sunday’s setback.

“We will be training quite a lot and we are in a very good position but games like this, especially in the first half, show the job is not done and I’ve been saying it every week,” he said.

“That’s definitely the mentality in our group that the job [of winning the league] is not done and now we just have to recover from this, physically and mentally, and put our minds on West Ham at home.”