Stars who dramatically declined after signing a contract extension RANKED: Salah 2nd… | OneFootball

Players from Arsenal, Liverpool and Manchester United are among those to see their form fall off a cliff immediately after signing a big contract extension.

It’s human nature to bust a gut when your future employment is on the line, only to relax subconsciously once that security has been assured.

We’ve ranked six big-name footballers who dramatically declined after putting pen to paper on a new deal with their clubs.

6. Mark Viduka

Both Leeds United and Australia’s all-time Premier League top goalscorer, Viduka was unplayable on his day. Liverpool fans will tell you that.

But Viduka was particularly unplayable – famously so – around the time that he and his agent were pushing for a new deal.

He had a wonderful Premier League career, but who knows if he might’ve achieved Alan Shearer-esque greatness if his clubs had cannily only offered him a series of one-year extensions.

5. Marcus Rashford

It didn’t last all that long, but there was a period of about six weeks following the World Cup restart, midway through the 2022-23 campaign, when Rashford was probably the most in-form player in Europe.

The Carrington graduate ended the campaign with his first Sir Matt Busby Player of the Year award, having notched a career-best 30 goals in all competitions.

He scored in the League Cup final victory over Newcastle and was Manchester United’s top scorer as they finished a promising third in Erik ten Hag’s first season at the helm.

Given that, it was something of a no-brainer for United to tie down their star asset, even at sky-high wages, in the summer of 2023.

Rashford committed his future at Old Trafford to 2028 on a deal that made him one of the best-paid players in the Premier League.

Unfortunately his form then immediately dipped, and he managed just eight goals in 43 appearances as United stuttered to an eighth-place finish.

He now finds himself on loan at Barcelona and appears unlikely to play for his boyhood club again.

4. Mesut Ozil

During Arsene Wenger’s latter years at Arsenal, they found themselves in the unenviable decision of their two best and most important players approaching the end of their contracts.

It was painful and unpopular at the time, but allowing Alexis Sanchez to leave for Manchester United proved a masterstroke given the trajectory his career his since taken.

In hindsight, it might have been for the best if they’d done the same with Ozil.

Ten days after Sanchez’s departure in January 2018, the playmaker – 29 at the time – signed a three-and-a-half-year deal that made him the highest-paid player in the club’s history.

Ozil had his moments after that, but he was no longer the dazzling assist machine he’d been in his pomp.

Eventually, he was frozen out by former team-mate Mikel Arteta and had that contract terminated six months early.

Not quite what they envisaged.

3. Mohamed Salah

There are other factors in Salah’s recent decline, including grief over the death of Diogo Jota and the passage of time catching up with the 33-year-old.

But can it be a coincidence that the Liverpool forward enjoyed his best season for years in 2024-25 when his contract was about to expire?

Salah leveraged his position cleverly, scoring the goals that fired Liverpool to the title and making occasional public comments to ramp up the pressure on the board.

The Egyptian was rewarded with a two-year extension worth £400,000 per week, but has become a shell of the player who has illuminated the Premier League since 2017.

He is now on the way out after an extraordinary outburst at being benched for three successive matches.

2. Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang

There’s some overlap with Ozil in Arsenal’s painful wilderness years outside of the Champions League, from Wenger’s latter days to Unai Emery to the start of Arteta’s reign.

In what was otherwise an ordinary team, Aubameyang was nothing short of phenomenal – particularly during Arteta’s first half-season, in which he fired the Gunners to an unlikely FA Cup with huge goals in the latter stages amid an otherwise forgettable campaign of midtable mediocrity.

Given that hottest of hot streaks in front of goal, it was understandable why many viewed Aubameyang as the talismanic figure capable of dragging the club out of the mire.

But he was 31 when he signed a bumper three-year deal in September 2020 and sure enough it soon appeared he was suddenly, starkly past his peak.

Like Ozil, he fell out of favour under Arteta and his contract was terminated 18 months early.

A bold call, but one that time has been kind to, given Arsenal’s current trajectory.

1. Dele Alli

It made total sense for Tottenham to reward Dele with a long and lucrative contract back in 2018.

It’s easy to forget now, but he was outrageously good in those early seasons when Mauricio Pochettino’s Spurs were at their best.

A year later, he started in a Champions League final, but that dizzying run past Manchester City and Ajax papered over the cracks of what had been an obvious backwards step for both the player and the Pochettino project.

The arrival of Jose Mourinho didn’t help matters, as shown in the All Or Nothing: Tottenham documentary, while moving to Fenerbahce and Everton failed to kickstart his career.