Mohamed Salah

[TheDrowningMan]

8 minutes ago, Jose Jones said:

Also a spot on piece by Barney Ronay in the Guardian too:

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2021/oct/04/extraordinary-talent-mohamed-salah-how-to-quantify-it-liverpool

 

Yes. 

 

Barring a really damaging injury, I’m almost certain that he will be operating at an elite level until at least the age of 34. He’s one of those truly dedicated, beyond world class players with the right combination of talent, dedication and game intelligence to ensure that any natural physical decline will be mitigated by an ability to adapt.

 

This really ought not to be a discussion; the only top clubs that lose players of this calibre do so because their heads have been turned by the glamour of playing elsewhere (see: Madrid and Barcelona of years’ gone by) or because they’re a financial basket case (see: Barcelona of 2021). As things stand, if Salah departs without a new contract, it will be because we’re simply not an elite club, and the knock-on effect will be considerable, regardless of how well we spend the transfer fee.

[Daisy]

We should easily be able to afford his wages. Our wage bill is higher than man United and they pay Ronaldo more than what Salah wants. 

[TheDrowningMan]

3 minutes ago, dockers_strike said:

So is Salah not quite idolised because he also used to go to ground too easily? Quite possibly so. But then that charge is levelled against Messi, against Ronaldo, against Neymar, against Suárez, against Harry Kane. Gareth Bale faced it constantly before his world-record move to Real Madrid eight years ago. Even so, and more than those other players, it does seem to have held the view of Salah back more than others which not only appears unfair but hopefully out-dated.

 

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2021/10/05/mohamed-salah-worlds-best-player-not-idolised/

It has absolutely nothing to do with the fact he “used to go to ground too easily”. He didn’t really, but was pulled up for it at a disproportionate rate by pundits, commentators and fans alike. I suspect I know why it’s taken a relatively long time to reach the level of acceptance he has, and it has nothing to do with his football.

[dockers_strike]

3 minutes ago, TheDrowningMan said:

It has absolutely nothing to do with the fact he “used to go to ground too easily”. He didn’t really, but was pulled up for it at a disproportionate rate by pundits, commentators and fans alike. I suspect I know why it’s taken a relatively long time to reach the level of acceptance he has, and it has nothing to do with his football.

I agree and unfortunately, if you read a number of the comments on the article, it comes out only too clearly.

[Lario]

He's better than I was at his age.

 

Can't put him on a higher pedestal than that.

[3 Stacks]

4 hours ago, Jose Jones said:

Also a spot on piece by Barney Ronay in the Guardian too:

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2021/oct/04/extraordinary-talent-mohamed-salah-how-to-quantify-it-liverpool

 

The quote to take from that is; "talent has a market". That's basically it. He's one of the best, so either we'll pay him like one of the best, or someone else will. It's one thing to let someone like Gini go, this is different and hopefully will be treated as such, finances permitting.

[Guest]

https://twitter.com/i/topics/733774569148841984?t=hSnP49y3E2w2kWN5ZK3phQ&s=09

[dockers_strike]

https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/mohamed-salah-liverpool-goal-man-city-b1931660.html

 

Supposedly wants £300k - £380k a week. Fucking give £380k a week.

 

As Mohamed Salah received the ball in the 75th minute of Sunday’s match, he had his back to goal and three Manchester City players within a 10-yard radius. A snapshot of that moment makes it look virtually impossible for the Egyptian to do much, let alone score. He would surely be crowded out.

What followed was simply genius. There’s no more accurate description. Jurgen Klopp was right to say it was up there with anything Lionel Messi can produce. It was a privilege to witness. Klopp was immediately aware of how special it was. “This goal will be talked about in 60, 70 years’ time.”

 

The Liverpool manager added that Salah had scored similarly against Tottenham Hotspur and Napoli.

Whatever about the distant future or recent past, though, there’s the hugely impressive present. It’s true Salah hadn’t scored a goal like that for a while, but it’s impossible to escape the feeling he has been building up to it. After a good summer’s break that refreshed him, he currently has nine goals from nine games. It is his best spell of form since April 2018, a period at the end of that first season at Anfield when he initially went on to another level as a player.

 

Runs like this are when a star is pushing the very boundaries of their talent, and they are on a plane of performance that means special feats start following. That’s what this goal was, not to mention the Messi-like run to set up Sadio Mane. It is Salah so assured with his ability that he feels he can try anything and it will come off. It usually does.

It may well have made him the best player in the Premier League again – and one of the best in the world.

This isn’t to say Salah has been off form over the past few years. It instead sometimes seems like he is so consistent that his contributions are often taken for granted. He hasn’t just kept scoring regularly for Liverpool. He’s kept scoring crucial goals, equalisers and match-winners.

 

Salah was already the most decisive player in the Premier League. He is currently the most devastating again, just wreaking havoc in the way he did in 2017-18 when he won the Player of the Year award, so perhaps wresting that status as the league’s outstanding star from Kevin De Bruyne.

That alone will give rise to bigger debates: whether Salah is actually the best player in Europe; whether he’s the best player in Liverpool’s history. They end up coming down to subjectives, but the fact someone even has a claim is impressive enough.

 

 

 

✕

 

 

A more pertinent debate is whether Liverpool should meet his huge contract demands. Salah’s contract is up in 2023, and he currently wants between £300k and £380k a week, which would break Liverpool’s wage structure by a considerable distance.

Salah’s goal against Manchester City was simply genius

(PA Wire)

The temptation during spells of form like this is to just get swept away and say yes, absolutely, pay him whatever he wants. There are as many arguments that they should hold firm, though, and they kind of swing on the same points.

 

Salah has recently turned 29, so it would go against the soundest football principles to award the biggest contracts as players get into their thirties. The situations at Barcelona and Juventus are sound evidence of that. Liverpool generally have the most forward-thinking policies in football.

This isn’t to say it is inevitable that Salah will now go into decline. It is possible that the old truths that the late twenties represent a player’s peak are outdated. The game is currently filled with world-class forwards in their mid-thirties in the form of their lives. At 33 and top of the Bundesliga scoring charges, Robert Lewandowski is an example of this.

This might be the consequence of modern sports science, that more and more elite players will keep playing at elevated levels into their late thirties.

Salah is more based on pure speed than most, which can fade, but he is another player in supreme physical condition; another who goes beyond old ideas of fitness. He is one of the new ultra-athletes. Like Cristiano Ronaldo, Lewandowski or Messi, he is also well capable of adapting his game, too.

Letting him go might mean Liverpool losing some of his best years – but not giving him this contract doesn’t mean letting him go.

The issue for Salah is that, while players of his generation have changed what we might expect from certain ages, clubs have not. Most of the best-run clubs still see it as inefficient business to give huge contracts to any players signed from outside who are above the age of 25.

This is one factor that has disrupted Salah’s career plan. The idea for a long time was to end up at Real Madrid and be the star player after Ronaldo. That was scuppered by the signing of Eden Hazard, which was also one of many similar moves – like for Antoine Griezmann – that put clubs off mega-deals for players in their late twenties.

Now, Madrid have long moved off Salah. They are looking to Kylian Mbappe and Erling Haaland, and are hoping to bring in both. Barcelona are a basket case. Most major European clubs are looking to rein in their budgets, so are likely to concentrate on youth – or players with “resale value” – even more.

As we’ve seen with Messi, Ronaldo and even Sergio Ramos, though, that can change if a player is available on a free. It’s just there’s some risk for both sides.

So, it really comes down to two main variables: whether Salah can keep going to the same level; and whether there is a market for him. Both are very hard to predict.

For the moment, there's only one certainty. That is that Salah will score. He is perhaps the best guarantee of goals in the game right now. And some of those goals, on this evidence, are going to be exquisite.

[Leyton388]

If FSG fail to get this sorted and either sell him or let him run his contract down the backlash they will get from the fans will be bigger than anything cancer and aids ever got. 

 

Wouldn't put it past the slimey fu keys to sell him in the summer and give Origi a new deal.

[aRdja]

There’s very little downside to extending his contract. It would not break any structure as he’s clearly the best player at the club currently. If day Bobby asks for a raise in response, tell him to match Salah’s output first. 

[TheHowieLama]

14 minutes ago, aRdja said:

There’s very little downside to extending his contract. It would not break any structure as he’s clearly the best player at the club currently. If day Bobby asks for a raise in response, tell him to match Salah’s output first. 

It wouldn't go down like that. TAA could certainly say if you are going to bump up Salah by 20-25% how about me? Same on down the line.

[Curly]

26 minutes ago, TheHowieLama said:

It wouldn't go down like that. TAA could certainly say if you are going to bump up Salah by 20-25% how about me? Same on down the line.

I don’t see why sportsmen’s salaries are so public. We are told not to discuss it at every place I’ve worked. Why should I get a pay rise because someone I work with gets a pay rise for doing excellent work for a while, because I’m doing my job. Wait your turns. “He’s getting one so I want one” is fucking shite

[m0e]

If we didn't give Gini 300k a week, we're not giving this cunt it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(I'm going for 4 negs from Daisy in a 24 hour period to break my record).

[Megadrive Man]

5 hours ago, Leyton388 said:

If FSG fail to get this sorted and either sell him or let him run his contract down the backlash they will get from the fans will be bigger than anything cancer and aids ever got. 

 

Wouldn't put it past the slimey fu keys to sell him in the summer and give Origi a new deal.

 

The problem that FSG have got is that we'd have to sell him next summer if we can't agree a new contract, and the only two clubs outside of England that could afford him are Real and PSG. Real will get Mbappe and probably Haaland, so won't be in for Salah. PSG probably could be tempted to replace Mbappe with him but I'm not sure if Salah would actually want the move to the French league, plus also they may tell him to hang on at Liverpool for another year and they will pay him and his agent the equivalent of the transfer fee the following summer.

[Megadrive Man]

I can understand why we would be reluctant to put him on 380k a week as it would single him out in the dressing room a bit as being superior and would have the agents of all the other players chasing a pay rise etc.

 

The best option I can think of is to offer him £250k but with a massive signing on fee. Maybe we already do this with players, which is what makes the wage bill so high?

[FrenchEyeGlass]

Which other player in our team is in contention for the ballon d'or?

 

Not a single fucking one, so how does it disrupt your wage structure? there is no equivalence between salah and anybody in our team, including virgil.

 

Furthermore, we've just got everybody to sign a new fucking deal, it's not like we're at the risk of any of our big players from running down their contract soon.

 

If you can't pay Mo Salah what he deserves, then it signals that LFC is not a destination for the world's elite players. As soon as you become elite, you become a bit too rich for our taste, so you can fuck off and win honors elsewhere, I guess.

[Jose Jones]

17 minutes ago, FrenchEyeGlass said:

Which other player in our team is in contention for the ballon d'or?

 

Not a single fucking one, so how does it disrupt your wage structure? there is no equivalence between salah and anybody in our team, including virgil.

 

Furthermore, we've just got everybody to sign a new fucking deal, it's not like we're at the risk of any of our big players from running down their contract soon.

 

If you can't pay Mo Salah what he deserves, then it signals that LFC is not a destination for the world's elite players. As soon as you become elite, you become a bit too rich for our taste, so you can fuck off and win honors elsewhere, I guess.

Well the very last time the Ballon d’Or happened Virgil came second, and Mo has never even been in the top 3.

So the top part isn’t entirely right. Pretty sure Allison won the Goalie D’OR as well.

 

I obviously agree we should sign him up long term though, and this off season was the best time to do it.

[Arnaud]

Money might not be the only issue. I guess Mo wants to add things like he can’t be denied to go to the Olympics or to play for his country no matter what. 

[Remmie]

9 hours ago, belarus said:

I don’t see why sportsmen’s salaries are so public. We are told not to discuss it at every place I’ve worked. Why should I get a pay rise because someone I work with gets a pay rise for doing excellent work for a while, because I’m doing my job. Wait your turns. “He’s getting one so I want one” is fucking shite

It's a negotiating tactic. So and so is on X, I want Y. The clubs can threaten to leak the salaries if it sounds like the player is too greedy. 

 

Plus isn't there some law now that companies can't stop you from discussing salaries with your colleagues? Promoting transparency and fair pay. 

[Daisy]

5 hours ago, m0e said:

If we didn't give Gini 300k a week, we're not giving this cunt it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(I'm going for 4 negs from Daisy in a 24 hour period to break my record).

You're a bad mong aren't you. 

 

Gini didn't want 300k to stay here. He didn't want to leave. You're the only one who seems to think he wanted ridiculous wages. 

 

He had agreed 150k a week at barca for fuck sake you knob head. 

[m0e]

1 hour ago, Daisy said:

You're a bad mong aren't you. 

 

Gini didn't want 300k to stay here. He didn't want to leave. You're the only one who seems to think he wanted ridiculous wages. 

 

He had agreed 150k a week at barca for fuck sake you knob head. 

With no signing on fee too, right?

 

A modern day Gandhi, our Gini.

[Babb'sBurstNad]

5 hours ago, Jose Jones said:

Well the very last time the Ballon d’Or happened Virgil came second, and Mo has never even been in the top 3.

So the top part isn’t entirely right. Pretty sure Allison won the Goalie D’OR as well.

 

I obviously agree we should sign him up long term though, and this off season was the best time to do it.

Don't forget Charlie Adam, he scooped the Carte D'or

[No2]

Interesting set up at Bayern, who in my opinion we should be using as the barometer. Lottery winners are irrelevant in the discussion, if a player wants PSG money let him go sweep up after Neymar in Paris. Lewandowski is on €20m per year, as per the article Coman wants parity with that so will be sold.

 

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.bavarianfootballworks.com/platform/amp/2021/9/21/22685674/bayern-munich-salary-tiers-wages-lewandowski-coman-sule-muller-alaba-hernandez-sabitzer-kimmich-sane

[VladimirIlyich]

11 minutes ago, No2 said:

Interesting set up at Bayern, who in my opinion we should be using as the barometer. Lottery winners are irrelevant in the discussion, if a player wants PSG money let him go sweep up after Neymar in Paris. Lewandowski is on €20m per year, as per the article Coman wants parity with that so will be sold.

 

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.bavarianfootballworks.com/platform/amp/2021/9/21/22685674/bayern-munich-salary-tiers-wages-lewandowski-coman-sule-muller-alaba-hernandez-sabitzer-kimmich-sane

Interesting. The problem with these structures is that there will always be somebody who is unhappy. These are lads who have reached the pinnacle of the professional game and with agents,and family sometimes,breathing down their necks knowing how much money is in the game there will always be pressure on them. A structure is a great way of running a club but there will always be a battle to keep that structure in place.

[Guest]

Just had Salah contract signed pop up on twitter.