‘Remarkable’: Pundit comments on the Liverpool fear that could derail next season’s recovery

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Liverpool fans have long since accepted that they wouldn’t be retaining their Premier League title, but as the team’s slump has continued there is now a very real chance of them failing to make the Champions League.

Marooned in eighth-place, seven points behind fourth-placed Chelsea, there is not even a guarantee of any European football at Anfield next season.

Their utter capitulation reached a new low on Sunday, when Fulham consigned them to their sixth successive home defeat.

With a 2-0 lead from their encounter in Germany, tonight’s Champions League second leg against RB Leipzig provides some brief respite from the relentless misery of their league campaign.

Speaking on talkSPORT, Charlie Austin says this season’s failures could have serious repercussions next season.

Rather than quickly bouncing back, the QPR loanee believes the likes of Erling Haaland will be unlikely to consider a club competing outwith Europe’s top competition.

Furthermore, big names like Mo Salah and Virgil van Dijk may be unsatisfied without the ability to test themselves against the continent’s best sides.

He said: “Liverpool are a massive, massive club, attract any player, but the way football is going at the moment, you need Champions League football.

“If Haaland became available, for argument’s sake, in the summer, he would want Champions League football, and if Liverpool don’t achieve that this year he’s not going to be able to play for Liverpool.

“Liverpool are not going to be able to attract him, it’s as simple as that.

“Look, they might get there, and hopefully, fingers crossed they do, but if they don’t they are not going to attract those players.

“Will they lose Salah? Who knows. Will they lose the bigger players onto bigger and better things? I don’t know.

“Van Dijk comes back from his big injury, long-term injury, he’d want Champions League football.

“They’re not going to lose van Dijk, of course they’re not, but he’d want Champions League football, of course he would. He’s the best centre-half in the world. 

“Let’s be honest, Liverpool are way, way more attractive with Champions League than what they are without, and I think everyone can agree with that.

“And I think, to be sat here now speaking about the defending English champions not making Champions League is remarkable, really.”