DOMINIC KING: If Henderson goes to Saudi for £700,000-a-week it's a GAME CHANGER

This would be the deal that changes everything. This would be the transfer that sends shock waves through every Premier League club and tells them nobody is unobtainable.

Jordan Henderson is Liverpool’s captain and England’s second in command. He’s 33, still in outstanding physical shape – take a look at the videos he has posted on his social media channels this summer – and his ability to influence games in beyond question.

After the last competitive fixture he played, for England against North Macedonia at Old Trafford on June 19, Gareth Southgate made a point of name-checking the influence Henderson had on setting the tempo for England to win 7-0 and take another step towards Euro 2024.

Here is Henderson’s level: he’s international class, crucial to setting standards in dressing rooms, and has plenty of gas in the tank to compete in the Premier League. He’s not shuffling around at the end of his career, getting five minute here and there, fighting against the dying of the light.

But Al-Ettifaq believe they can take him from Anfield. They are prepared to offer the kind of sums on a weekly basis that would end up, over the course of a long-term contract, looking like the numbers on an international phone number, with digits going on and on.

It is understood they are ready to potentially quadruple terms that are currently in the region of £190,000 per week. No matter how well financially rewarded someone has been throughout their career, these kinds of terms would turn anyone’s head and make them think long and hard.

There is no guarantee that Henderson will leave Liverpool. His heart is at the club, he’s squeezed every ounce out of himself to chisel a place in Anfield folklore and hold the distinction of being the only man to lead them team out in three European Cup finals.

Two summers ago, Paris St Germain and Atletico Madrid, and a couple of other European sides, asked questions about taking him from Merseyside but Jurgen Klopp wouldn’t consider that possibility and made sure his captain stayed.

Things change in football, however, and now we are in situation where Al-Ettifaq, managed by another Anfield giant in Steven Gerrard, are pressing and desperate to make him the standout figure in a rebuild they hope will see them become Saudi’s top club.

And this is what makes the situation so remarkable: this potentially could be a transfer – if it was to happen – that redefines the landscape. For a league that is not anywhere near the standard of Europe’s top divisions to take the active captain of Liverpool would be remarkable.

Henderson is not Cristiano Ronaldo, sulking and preening and desperate for one last hurrah, trying to show that his powers have not waned; he is not Kalidou Koulibaly, whose form is nowhere near the level that made him such an imposing performer for Napoli and Senegal.

He is not, even, his old Liverpool team-mate Roberto Firmino, who was out of contract and accepted the chance to sign for Al Ahli after Klopp deemed him surplus to requirements last spring – Henderson, certainly at this stage, would be expected to start the season opener against Chelsea.

But Al-Ettifaq are pushing at a door they hope will open. If they prove to be successful, every Saudi club will back themselves to prise away the biggest figures at every club in the Premier League and the evidence they would have would be Henderson.

Quite what it would mean for an England career that has spanned 11 years, six tournaments and 77 caps is unclear; given the relationship he enjoys with Southgate, a man he respects greatly, it is unfeasible to think the pair will not talk about the implications.

From here, there is much to discuss. But, equally, there is also much at stake. Those who have been quick to dismiss the Saudi-Pro League as a retirement home will have to think again if Al Ettifaq can lure away a man as influential as Henderson. What happens from here is huge.