Let’s see how Salah starts next season ... because the figures just don’t add up on keeping him at the Moment
WITH the departure of Sadio Mane, I’m fascinated by the situation now facing Liverpool over his partnerin-crime Mo Salah.
I won’t pretend to know what’s going on with his contract, but clearly the answer is nothing much.
And that leaves so many questions unanswered.
One thing is obvious, the club have done some very clear, precise and unemotional calculations with Mane.
He’s 31 next April, has a huge amount of running in his legs and wanted a huge contract as one of the best players in the world.
I don’t blame him for that. Mane is the equal of virtually every world-class star at the moment and rightly wanted that recognition with the going rate for the last big contract of his career.
What Liverpool so obviously did, though, was run their analytics – which, to their credit, they do so well – and decided selling him to buy Darwin Nunez and keep their wage structure in place was the right thing for the club. It begs the question: what calculations have they run on Salah?
What screams out to me so clearly is they won’t be breaking their wage structure to keep him.
If they were prepared to do that, it would have happened by now. But I can’t blame Salah for wanting the going rate... just like Mane.
He’s the Premier League Golden Boot winner, Footballer of the Year and in with a great shout of the Ballon d’Or top three.
What salary does a player in the top three in the world command?
He obviously believes it’s more than Liverpool are offering.
But if my old club are running complex calculations, then so is Salah – and it can never be a precise science.
I think him saying that, no matter what happens with his contract, he’ll be at Anfield next year was clearly a threat. What he’s suggesting is, “Give me the money or lose me for nothing”. Which, again, is fair enough and his right.
Judged on the past few years, he knows he deserves the same wages as Kevin De Bruyne, Cristiano Ronaldo, Jadon Sancho and Romelu Lukaku – the Premier League’s highest earners.
So his calculation is that if he gets to leave Liverpool next summer on a free, with his salary and a fat signing-on bonus, he’ll get that level of wages.
That can work and often does.
But there’s another calculation which I’m inclined to believe Liverpool are running.
Will Salah still be the same player next summer? He’s been one of the best in the world for a long time now. But, since the turn of the year, he’s been – by his standards – pretty average.
Look at his goals record. Six from open play in the whole of 2022, a lot of missed chances, some heartache in the Champions League Final when he could have won it – and probably the Ballon d’Or along with it.
So he and Liverpool must ask, “Is that temporary because of the punishing schedule and his exertions for Egypt? Or is time catching up with him?”.
That’s the question other potential suitors must ask, too, if and when he becomes available. Can he stay at the summit of world football well into his 30s, or will he begin to fade?
I have to confess that I’m beginning to believe Liverpool are concerned it will be the latter – otherwise they’d have done more over a new deal.
And maybe they’re waiting now to see how he starts next season.
In the end, all players have to leave, Salah will have to be replaced. Eventually.
Liverpool have been good at doing that on their own terms in recent years.
This one, though, is the toughest of the lot.
of Since the turn the year, Salah has been – by
– his standards
pretty average