Liverpool are in talks with Mohamed Salah about a new contract at Anfield that would seek to extend his stay at the club by up to two years after the end of his current contract in 2023.
Liverpool, although relatively quiet on the transfer front, have been busy with new contracts this summer and have already secured extensions with Trent Alexander-Arnold, Alisson, Fabinho and Virgil van Dijk to keep the core parts of their title-winning team together.
Salah signed his last long-term contract shortly after representing Egypt at the 2018 World Cup and has seen his income grow with bonuses triggered by Liverpool’s success on the field since.
Talks about a new contract have been expected for some time, but the issue was raised in public this weekend when Salah’s longtime adviser and agent Remy Abbas Issa sent a barely disguised message to the club when Egypt scored against Norwich.
“I hope they watch,” read the viral tweet, shared and liked thousands of times.
Athletic reports that contract negotiations with Salah “are already underway” and Liverpool aim to reach an agreement on a new contract by 2025.
Salah’s current contract is worth £ 200,000 a week but it is said that Liverpool have financial constraints and are not prepared to ignore the salary structure that has been the basis for their recent successes.
It is said that Liverpool officials estimate that Salah deserves to be paid according to his status as one of the world’s best players, but the Reds already have the second highest salary in the Premier League and have been significantly affected by the coronavirus pandemic – they initially wanted to forgive staff who did not played to reduce costs and booked a pre-tax loss of £ 46 million for 2019/20.
An early disagreement over what Salah is worth could have been behind his agent’s tweet.
I hope they watch.
– Ramy Abbas Issa (@RamyCol) August 14, 2021
Salah has run speculation in the past. He gave an interview to the Spanish publication AS at the end of 2020 where he praised Real Madrid and Barcelona as “top clubs” and refused to rule out anything in the future. His representatives have also considered a transfer and 90 minutes were informed shortly after the interview that while Salah does not actively want to leave Liverpool and is not dissatisfied with the club, his camp has explored possible alternatives of his own free will.
The economic situation in Europe’s best clubs has ensured that it has not been possible for it to develop. The question for Liverpool is that it would be enormously expensive to try to replace Salah in the transfer market and it makes sense to keep him instead is the priority.
In addition to ongoing talks with Salah, Liverpool are believed to have reached an agreement with Jordan Henderson following an initial lack of progress, while The Athletic adds that talks with agents representing Sadio Mane and Andrew Robertson have also now begun.
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