Liverpool’s contract dance with Salah was always going to be complicated | Mohamed Salah

Mohamed Salah’s admission that he is “more out than in” at Liverpool creates a tremor in an otherwise serene debut season for Arne Slot. The Liverpool head coach can take comfort in the fact there is zero evidence to support Salah’s claim on the pitch and, while he and sporting director Richard Hughes are new to the club, contract posturing by the Anfield superstar is not.

Salah rarely stops to give post-match interviews but what happened at Southampton on Sunday was not unusual in many respects. There was the removal of the shirt following a match‑winning goal that invited a yellow card but also revealed a chiselled physique. Just in case anyone is still wondering what condition he is in at 32. Another decisive job done, with Liverpool sitting eight points clear at the top of the Premier League after his 11th and 12th goals of the season, and Salah seized his next opportunity, telling waiting reporters he was disappointed not to have received a formal contract offer and a resolution is “not in my hands”.

The Egypt international used that line several times when expressing frustration over the delay to his previous contract extension at Liverpool. That process took more than 12 months to complete and ended with Salah signing a three-year deal in July 2022 worth a basic £350,000 a week. According to his agent, Ramy Abbas Issa, Salah’s current contract helps him to earn at least £1m a week when image rights and playing targets are factored in.

The interview on Sunday appears part of a well-rehearsed and successful negotiating strategy. If so, Salah and his agent are perfectly entitled to give it another try. The phenomenal forward remains in remarkable form, registering 10 assists to accompany his 12 goals in 18 games this season. He was the first player in European football’s top five leagues to reach double figures in both categories in this campaign. He continues to be the difference-maker for a team who are currently on course to win the Premier League title and top the Champions League group with the only 100% record in the competition. Liverpool could weaken the hold of Manchester City and Real Madrid on the respective trophies before this week is over. “Best player in the world,” Abbas Issa posted about his client on 11 November. The inference was clear. The claim had legitimacy.

There is a difference in the strategy to secure what the “best player in the world” is worth in 2024, however, and that is the timing. On both sides. Salah had two years remaining on his contract when first going public with his disappointment over negotiations last time out. Now he is seven months away from being able to walk out on a free transfer and merely 37 days from being able to sign a pre-contract agreement with a foreign club.

The first notice of discontent over this extension, indeed the first public declaration that Salah wished to extend, came at Old Trafford in September after the striker had scored one and created two in Liverpool’s 3-0 rout of Manchester United. “Nobody in the club has talked to me about contracts,” Salah said. That does not mean nobody in the club had spoken to Abbas Issa about contracts.

It is understandable if Salah’s camp and Liverpool have waited longer to engage over a new contract this time around. The club have been through a period of seismic change since Jürgen Klopp informed owners Fenway Sports Group of his decision to quit in November last year. Klopp’s exit was the catalyst for FSG to change its entire football structure, with Michael Edwards returning in the newly created role of chief executive of football. A new manager, or head coach as it turned out, and a new sporting director to replace Julian Ward had to be found. Salah’s strained relationship with Klopp at the end of last season, encapsulated by his behaviour on the touchline at West Ham, was not exactly conducive to a fresh round of contract talks.

Salah would be well within his rights to see how results shaped up under Slot before deciding if he wanted to extend a glittering seven‑year career at Anfield. Equally, Liverpool will have wanted to see how Salah fitted into the new head coach’s style before making an approach. There is also the question of age, a process that Salah is defying at present but has to be factored into any club’s thinking when offering a lucrative contract to a player who turns 33 in June. The issue was not as pressing in 2022.

The same applies to Virgil van Dijk, who is also in superb form, is also out of contract at the end of this season, and who turns 34 next July. Both players want to stay. Liverpool want both players to stay. But how they continue to reward the club’s two highest earners beyond their peak – and for how long – will determine whether the pair do so.

“Extending a contract with a player like Mo is not something where you meet for a cup of tea in the afternoon and find an agreement,” said Klopp before Salah signed on again in 2022. It is a lengthy, exhaustive process that Hughes and Abbas Issa are engaged in. Liverpool insist the talks have been positive and Salah is telling the truth when he says, right now, there is no offer on the table. But it is inconceivable that will remain the case for long.

Liverpool showed what they felt Salah was worth not only when awarding his last contract in 2022 but when rejecting £150m for his services from Al-Ittihad the following summer. Their belief that he had more value as a Liverpool player was vindicated with last season’s qualification for the Champions League after a one-year absence and this season’s Premier League title pursuit. Time is pressing, however, for Liverpool to make Salah feel more in than out once again.