Why Liverpool MUST pay Mo Salah - Sam McGuire

Mohamed Salah isn’t just a Liverpool legend, he’s a Premier League legend.

The 32-year-old sits eighth on the goals list with 165. He’s on course to surpass Thierry Henry (175) by the end of the current campaign. He recently leapfrogged the former Arsenal legend in the assists table too after setting up Darwin Nunez’s opener in Liverpool’s 2-0 win over Aston Villa. He’s now 13th on the list and the Egypt international needs just five more assists in the English top-flight to break into the top 10.

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He also matched a long-standing Premier League record against the Villans on Saturday night.

Salah has now scored and assisted in the same game on 36 occasions. Wayne Rooney is the only other player to have achieved this. On current form, it won’t be long before the Liverpool No11 is the outright holder of this particular record.

The former Roma man is in unbelievable, almost unstoppable form.

In the Premier League, he leads the way for goal involvements this term with 14 having scored eight times and assisted six goals in his opening 11 appearances.

He’s also chipped in with one goal and four assists in the Champions League this term to take his haul to 19 goal involvements across 15 appearances in those two competitions.

Not bad for a one-season wonder, ey?

It makes the current situation even more galling.

The contract situation

In a little over seven weeks time, the three-time Golden Boot winner is free to talk to other clubs. Salah’s current deal at Anfield is up at the end of the season and those in charge don’t appear to be in a rush to tie him down to a new contract.

Recent reports have claimed the rumoured Al Hilal transfer target is going to stay on Merseyside during the international break, having excused himself from the national team, to focus on contract talks. A two-year extension is believed to be the end goal for the one-time Chelsea winger. A two-year extension would take him to 10 years with the Merseyside club.

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He returned to the Premier League in 2017 following a stint in Serie A. Since the move to the Reds, he’s shattered records galore and won everything imaginable with Liverpool.

Salah has combined forces with the likes of Sadio Mane, Roberto Firmino, Diogo Jota, Luis Diaz, Darwin Nunez and Cody Gakpo over the years. Despite the changing dynamic of the Liverpool attack and a new manager coming in this summer, he’s remained the main man and his output has remained outrageously consistent.

Across his full seven seasons with the club, he’s averaged 22 goals in the Premier League. At his current rate of scoring, he’s on target to hit 28 goals this term. It’d be his best return since the record-breaking 2017/18 campaign.

He’s won the Player of the Year Award, the Playmaker of the Year accolade and the Goal of the Season.

Salah has been in the PFA Team of the Season on three occasions. How he’s now made it into that XI every single year is, quite frankly, ridiculous given the numbers he reliably puts up. However, it does fit the trend of Salah being overlooked, snubbed and underappreciated.

Salah disrespect

The Egypt international didn’t make the 30-man shortlist for the 2024 Ballon d’Or despite his 39 goal involvements across all competitions.

He was shunned from the recent UEFA Team of the Week despite claiming two assists against Bundesliga champions Bayer Leverkusen. The same thing happened earlier in the season when he missed out despite scoring and assisting in the win over Bologna.

CAF also left Salah out of their shortlist for African Player of the Year. A source close to Salah recently revealed that the last time the organisation had contacted them was two or three years ago to organise his attendance at an awards ceremony.

The club played some part in the Salah disrespect too. In late August, the goalscoring forward revealed nobody, at that point, had spoken to him about a new deal. Why weren’t the Reds treating one of their greatest-ever players, someone who could talk to other clubs in the middle of the season, with the respect he more than deserves? It is that sort of mindset and approach that has the potential to derail a campaign.

What Mo wants

If reports are true and he does want a new two-year deal, where is the harm in giving him just that?

Interest from Saudi Arabia means Liverpool aren’t in an awkward or financially risky situation if his form dramatically falls off. There will always be a buyer for Salah. And he’s aware enough to call time on his career at Anfield if he feels it isn’t working out. After all, it is clear he loves the club.

If it was about money, he would’ve moved long ago. While he’s the best-paid player in the club’s history, other teams could’ve bettered his salary.

Some feared the new deal in 2022 was a risk but in the two full seasons since then, he’s scored 37 Premier League goals and chipped in with 22 assists. He doesn’t appear to be slowing down. He’s still as productive as ever.

So why the reluctance to get him tied down as soon as possible? Extending his contract by two years is about as risk-free as can be. It is also something of a statement. It shows the club want to win by keeping their best players around.

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