'Players can't stay at the top forever'

This has not caused a major stir yet but give it time. Some of the greatest players in Premier League history, who are currently playing brilliantly for their clubs, have been allowed to run into the final year of their contracts without any sign of renewal yet.

Kevin de Bruyne, Mo Salah and Virgil van Dijk to name but three, have not been offered new deals and no negotiations have yet started.

This would appear unthinkable stupidity regarding any top player because they will be free agents when their contracts run out. But there is that one vital obvious factor: their ages.

Salah is 32, with Van Dijk and De Bruyne both 33. These guys are paid fortunes and huge new contracts going forward are rightly perceived as a potential risk.

Players cannot stay at the top forever. Age and injuries catch up with us all in the end, however much they play like Supermen.

But surely these guys' performances at this level cannot fall off the edge of the cliff that quickly?

Try saying that to any top-level Premier League executive and he will probably answer with a one-word, rhetorical question: "Casemiro?"

Pat Nevin was writing for the BBC Football Extra Newsletter