The latest update in the long-running saga surrounding Mohamed Salah's club future has taken a surprising turn as Liverpool are reportedly resigned to losing the Egyptian for free next summer.
Salah has just 12 months left to run on his current Reds contract and the two parties have been at loggerheads in negotiations over a new deal for quite some time. The former Chelsea and Roma forward has insisted that he has always made his desire to stay clear and the ball is firmly in the club's court.
While Salah's insistence that he wants to stay is one side of the story, his wage demands are significantly higher than what the Reds are used to paying any of their players. Liverpool have long had a wage structure in place to ensure the club can operate within their means.
It is become increasingly clear that Jurgen Klopp's side will not break that structure to try and meet Salah's £400,000-per-week wage demand despite his legacy at Anfield. In turn, the Reds have named their price for their talisman if any clubs were keen on prying him away this summer.
Liverpool will demand £60million to sanction the sale of Salah, but given he has no real desire to leave and any interested club could hold fire for a season and get him for free it is more than likely the Egypt international spends next season at Anfield before re-assessing his options.
When the time comes and his contract expires, Real Madrid are reported as one of the clubs that could come knocking to sign Salah on a free transfer. However, there are some clear obstacles that could prevent the Reds number 11 from ever donning the iconic white and gold of Los Blancos.
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Surprisingly given Salah's past comments on his desire to one day play in Spain, he has made somewhat of an enemy out of Real Madrid. Since joining Liverpool, Salah has faced off against the Spanish titans in two Champions League finals and another knockout stage two-legged clash - he has failed to beat them.
The first final meeting saw Salah come off early with an injury after a cynical foul from Sergio Ramos damaged the Egyptian's shoulder. Salah is on the record as claiming the pain of that defeat or that clash with Ramos is not something he still thinks about.
Speaking before the two teams met in the 2020-21 edition of the competition, the former Roma forward told Marca : "That game is in the past, so I don't think about [what happened with Ramos].
"I'm thinking about the team. Everyone is focused on their team and everyone wants to win... that's it. Let's just say that I have special motivation to win the tie and go through to the semi-finals."
Last season, after Liverpool had beaten Villarreal in the semi-finals of the Champions League and were awaiting to find out who they would face in the final between Real Madrid and Manchester City, Salah made his feelings crystal clear.
"I want to play Madrid, I have to be honest. City are a really tough team, we played against them a few times this season, but I think if you ask me personally, I would prefer Madrid," he admitted. "Because we lost in the final against them, I want to play against them, and hopefully win against them."
Once it had been confirmed that the Reds would take on Carlo Ancelotti's side once again, Salah took to twitter to write: "We have a score to settle."
Where Salah's potential future move to Real Madrid could come unstuck is the fact that those remarks clearly did not go down well among the Los Blancos dressing room. Fede Valverde suggested the Liverpool forward was guilty of "disrespecting the badge" with his confession.
Speaking before the most recent Champions League meeting between the two teams - this year's final, Valverde told Club del Deportista magazine: "Obviously they're words that everyone can take however they want. I'm his opponent and it's like disrespecting the Real Madrid badge, the players."
Souring relations with the 14-time Champions League winners is unlikely to have increased his chances of one day of plying his trade at the Santiago Bernabeu.
