If Mohamed Salah’s intention was to pile the pressure on Liverpool with his post-match comments at Old Trafford at the weekend, he could scarcely have been more effective.
Salah told Sky Sports “it’s my last year in the club” and claimed “nobody” at Liverpool has discussed a new contract with him.
Salah’s current deal is up at the end of the season and, as it stands, he would be free to sign a pre-contract agreement with an overseas club from January 1 and end his eight-year association with Liverpool as a free agent next summer — despite still being among the best players in the world.
Salah was speaking on Sunday after scoring and assisting both of Luis Diaz’s goals, as Liverpool humiliated their fiercest rivals Manchester United to earn a landmark win for new head coach Arne Slot.
According to well-informed reports, Salah is eager to stay at Liverpool if a suitable new deal is on the table, surely leaving Slot, new sporting director Richard Hughes and Michael Edwards, chief executive of football for the club’s owners, with the simplest of decisions. Or perhaps not.
Salah will be 33 at the start of next season and would presumably be keen for more than a one-year extension, which would take him into his mid-30s.
While he is showing every sign of ageing like a fine wine and even adding to his game (both of his assists for Diaz on Sunday were with his right foot, which Salah barely seemed to use a few years ago), he will decline eventually, and Liverpool will be conscious of being held to ransom by a player in the twilight of his career.
Is the risk of losing a still-elite Salah to a rival next summer greater than the risk of handing a long-term contract to an ageing superstar?
Liverpool have rarely given out big contracts to senior players under these owners and their only signing this summer was in Salah’s position: Italian winger Federico Chiesa from Juventus.
The situation is even more complicated for Liverpool because Salah’s contract cannot be viewed in isolation. Virgil van Dijk and Trent Alexander-Arnold — along with Salah, probably the club’s most important players — are also out of contract next summer.
Liverpool are probably paying the price for the turbulence caused by Jurgen Klopp’s exit, as well as the upheaval in the recruitment department between Edwards’s departure from the club in 2021 and his return in an executive role this summer.
It is understandable if Liverpool were reluctant to hand Salah and Van Dijk new deals during Klopp’s farewell tour last season, before a new manager had been able to run the rule over the pair, though Alexander-Arnold’s situation looks like negligence on the club’s part.
It is understandable if Liverpool were reluctant to hand Salah and Van Dijk new deals during Klopp’s farewell tour, though Alexander-Arnold’s situation looks like negligence
Liverpool now find themselves in a tough spot, the clock ticking and the pressure mounting on the club to decide the futures of their three most treasured players. If they do come to the table, Salah will find himself in a position of strength, his stock as high as ever and supporters desperate for more.
When Salah signed his last Liverpool contract, a three-year extension in July 2022, worth a reported £350,000 a week, some questioned whether the club would come to regret such a lavish agreement.
Salah has emphatically proved that Liverpool made the right call then. The question now is whether the club can again come out on top when deciding the futures of their biggest assets.
