MO’S PRICELESS DURABILITY CAN KEEP REDS AT THE TOP FOR YEARS
NORMALLY quite reticent, Mohamed Salah has given an interview to FourFourTwo magazine.
In it, he says: “I have one year left (on his contract) and the fans know what I want.” Only they don’t, Mo. They really don’t. They don’t know how much money you want, they don’t know what length of deal you want, they don’t know if you want to move to another country.
Nor should they.
After all, it is every worker’s right to have their contract negotiations remain private.
But reading between the lines of Salah’s latest words on the possibility of a new contract, the timespan of the package will be just as relevant as the remuneration.
Salah makes reference to the longevity of several of the game’s blue-chip players. Robert Lewandowski turns 34 in the summer, Karim Benzema is that age now, Lionel Messi will be 35 in June, and, of course, Cristiano Ronaldo is 37.
Salah (right) will be 30 in two months.
And the one thing that does not get mentioned often enough when discussing Salah’s future is how robust he is.
According to the highly respected website transfermarkt.co.uk, since joining Basel in 2012, Salah has been unavailable through injury for 15 matches. Just 15.
And the same source suggests Salah has been unfit for selection on only three occasions in his time at Liverpool – and one of those was when he had tested positive for Covid.
Even allowing for the odd discrepancy in the records, those are remarkable numbers. An ankle problem that sidelined him for 28
days while playing for AS Roma during the 2015/16 season is the most serious injury he has sustained.
It goes without saying that durability is one of the qualities coveted by managers.
And Salah has it in abundance.
That is why, for players like him, the unwritten rules of handing contracts to players in – or about to go into – their 30s do not apply.
While Salah heavily intimates he wants to extend his stay at Anfield, there is a chance that he
might wonder what the experience would be like at, say, Barcelona or Real Madrid. Or in Paris, even.
After all, he does not have an obligation to stay on Merseyside, but this Liverpool team have the chance to be a dominant European force for many years to come.
And it is a greater chance if Salah stays around.
If Liverpool have a wage structure, a reluctance to shatter it would be understandable.
But if they baulk at whatever length of contract he wants, that is not understandable.
If he wants five years, they should give them to him.
Because, while it is unusual to find a player as talented as Salah, it is even more unusual – let’s hope this is no jinx – to find one as startlingly robust.
And, in sport, that is a priceless quality.