With Mo Salah’s contract entering its final 10 months, it would be natural for Liverpool to agree a new deal.
After Liverpool kicked off the Arne Slott era with a three-game winning streak, Salah said the Reds were playing the type of football they played under Jurgen Klopp seven years ago.
“It’s not a big difference. The first few years with Jurgen it was always like this. We tried to get the ball as high as possible,” Salah told Sky Sports after scoring and providing two assists in the 3-0 win over Manchester United.
“Then, over time, we were able to change the system or the way we played.
“It’s pretty similar to seven years ago, but I think the manager has his own system and we’re all trying to adapt to it.”
For the author of this article, it brought back memories of the pre-season trip to Germany and the 3-0 friendly win over Bayern Munich, where new signing Salah scored on his first appearance for the club.
Salah then scored in his first competitive appearance for Liverpool, a 3-3 draw against Watford that showcased the best and worst of Klopp’s early days in charge.
How did Sala’s contract situation come to this?
Few knew what to expect from the bushy-haired Egyptian who arrived from AS Roma for £43.9m. Comparisons to Juan Cuadrado were certainly off the mark at the time, but even fewer could have predicted what was to come.
Seven years on, Salah is the Reds’ fifth-highest scorer in history, with 214 goals in 352 appearances, averaging a goal every 93 minutes, including 92 assists.
He has enjoyed incredible form and has broken record after record by winning seven trophies, and this season he could overtake Billy Liddell as Liverpool’s top scorer and potentially move into fifth place on the Premier League’s all-time scoring list, ahead of four other players.
A whirlwind start to the new campaign has seen him register three goals and three assists in three games, and he appears to be enjoying being out of his “comfort zone” under new manager Slot.
All of which makes it particularly baffling that his contract was allowed to run until the final 10 months and, according to Salah himself, there has been no contact about an extension so far.
This can largely be explained by the enormous upheaval Liverpool have experienced off the pitch over the past two years, particularly since Julian Ward tendered his resignation in November 2022.
Ward played a key role in negotiating Salah’s current contract, which made him the club’s highest-paid player in history. But it wasn’t long before the sporting director decided his time was up.
Jorg Schmatke was then appointed as a short-term replacement, before shocking news broke that manager Jurgen Klopp was planning to leave the club.
Klopp’s departure led to a comprehensive reorganisation of the club at board level, with Fenway Sports Group restructuring the organisation, handing over more and more responsibilities to the legendary manager.
The latter stages of Klopp’s reign have seen his mark on everything, but his and the instability in the recruitment department have meant that new signings for Salah, Trent Alexander-Arnold and Virgil van Dijk have taken a backseat.
Almighty mission
New sporting director Richard Hughes and the return of Michael Edwards, who has already helped appoint Klopp’s successor and reshape and strengthen the squad, will face significant challenges.
There are claims that talks over a contract extension have been temporarily halted due to the focus on the transfer market.
But if Salah’s claims that the club have yet to contact him or his agent, director Rami Abbas, are to be believed, it appears negligent, to say the least.
Of course, given the high profile nature of the proposed deal, there is a good chance that internal politics will be involved, and Salah is not shy about using the power of the media to bolster his position.
He did so before Liverpool offered him a £350,000-a-week contract in 2022 and are keen to do the same this time around, especially among supporters who fear they could lose one of the club’s greatest ever players for free next summer.
But a cool-headed, analytical recruiter won’t be swayed by any emotions, and it’s safe to say that any concerns about hiring a top-earning 32-year-old entry-level employee are justified.
But Salah, for example, is not like Casemiro, who also turns 33 next year and is struggling to make ends meet at Manchester United on a salary of around £300,000 a week.
There are no signs that Salah is suffering a similar decline. In fact, as Andy Robertson puts it, one could argue that the Egyptian is getting better with age.
Salah doesn’t slow down
He has lost a yard of speed and last season was sidelined by the longest injury of his senior career, but Salah remains in impeccable form and is adding more opportunities in a new system in the slot.
Salah remains a formidable goalscorer but he has also developed into an elite-level creator and, despite missing a lengthy spell with a hamstring injury, he remained Liverpool’s top scorer and assist provider last season with 25 goals and 14 assists in 44 games.
He has worked tirelessly to improve his fitness, joking that his “home is like a hospital” after installing hyperbaric oxygen and cryotherapy chambers. He also started the new season covering more miles per game than in any of the past three seasons.
He will be 33 when this deal ends and 35 when the hypothetical two-year extension ends, but Salah is no ordinary footballer.
He is still more like Cristiano Ronaldo, who at 39 is still attacking, while fellow Egyptian Mido retired at 30 and criticised Salah’s decision to leave the Africa Cup of Nations camp midway through the tournament to recover from an injury.
Liverpool’s decision-makers should not be under the illusion that they are working with an extraordinary player with generational performances, universal appeal and an overwhelming affinity for the club and the city.
And with Salah making it clear he wants to remain at Anfield, it would make sense to sign him to a new long-term contract.
