5 longest serving players in the current Liverpool squad
Liverpool has been home to some players who became legends over the Premier League years. Steven Gerrard, Michael Owen, Robbie Fowler and Luis Suarez amongst others would all be contenders for an all-time great Premier League team.
Like all modern-day clubs though, it’s becoming harder and harder to become a true Anfield legend as the tenure of players becomes shorter and playing turnover increases with each transfer window.
The summer of 2017 saw Liverpool sell Brazilian midfielder Lucas Leiva to Lazio, and with him, the final vestiges of the Rafael Benitez era at the club were finally gone too. Liverpool have seen four permanent managers since Benitez departed in 2010 – Roy Hodgson, Kenny Dalglish, Brendan Rodgers and now Jurgen Klopp – but plenty more players along the way.
Who can guess how long new signings like Mo Salah or Dominic Solanke might stick around for? If they’re lucky, it might be for as long as these five players.
This is a list of Liverpool’s five longest-tenured players - going from the point in which they made their debut, rather than when they signed for the club, to avoid any confusion with youth players who may have been there since they were children.
#5: Simon Mignolet – debuted August 13th, 2013
The fact that Mignolet has only been at Anfield for just over four years shows how quick player turnover happens these days, but in a lot of respects it’s even more glaring for the Belgian keeper, as there are numerous Reds fans out there who would probably argue he should’ve been removed from between the sticks by now.
Mignolet’s debut season was fantastic, though – the Belgian was signed from Sunderland to replace the outgoing Pepe Reina, and saved a penalty on his debut, a 1-0 victory over Stoke City. Liverpool finished second that season, and Mignolet was an ever-present, starting all 38 of the Reds’ league games.
In fact, he went on a run of 53 consecutive Premier League starts before Brendan Rodgers dropped him in favour of Brad Jones in December 2014.
Mignolet was soon back in favour though due to an injury to Jones, and his resurgence led to him signing a new five-year deal with the club in January 2016. 2016/17 saw more tribulations for him – this time he was dropped in favour of Loris Karius, but since he has again has regained his place due to some costly errors by the German goalie.
Whether Mignolet can finally retain his spot now is unknown as his form still remains spotty in a world where keepers are under ever more pressure, but for now, he’s clearly going to manage five seasons in a Liverpool shirt.