Mohamed Salah

[Strontium 11,419]

Understand that Salah's demanding to be paid one of these per week:

 

[Bjornebye 34,245]

10 minutes ago, Strontium Dog™ said:

Understand that Salah's demanding to be paid one of these per week:

 

Giza wedge 

[Daisy 39]

Distinct lack of Moe and Scott in here

[TheDrowningMan 720]

47 minutes ago, Daisy said:

Distinct lack of Moe and Scott in here

Salah should be happy with what he’s got despite being the best player in the world who could probably get more by moving to Spurs!

 

The more I think about FSG dragging their heels with this, the more it pisses me off. If they fail to renew, they need to do the decent thing and make £300m or so available to strengthen the squad in the summer - they have the means. The wage bill excuse only goes so far when we’re rock bottom in terms of net spend over the last few years.

 

If, on the other hand, he goes and Bowen or Sterling ends up being their idea of a replacement, I hope the player in question is booed out of the club if he fails to contribute the same level of success as Salah.

 

 

[Vincent Vega 5,707]

 

[dockers_strike 4,194]

5 minutes ago, Vincent Vega said:

 

This time last year all it took for Mohamed Salah to light the fire was his choice of publication: an interview with the Spanish sport newspaper AS just before Christmas that was enough to indicate the scope of his horizons and where his mind might wonder as time ticked down on his Liverpool contract.

One year on and another interview, although this time there were no subtle inferences and Salah was obliged to spell out his contractual stalemate in much blunter terms. “I'm not asking for crazy stuff”, was his summary of the long negotiations with Liverpool over the renewal of his contract. Although what qualifies as crazy in the salary wars of the modern Premier League depends on whether you are the one playing or the one who is paying.

The strategy pursued by Liverpool through this negotiation was repeated once again on Wednesday when Jurgen Klopp responded in his press conference. The club are not challenging the player publicly, and they are not even prepared to contest Salah’s claim that his salary demands – whatever they might be - are appropriate. All that is for certain is that Liverpool are simply not prepared to meet them.

As for Salah, it is hard to know what he does next. His record this season is that of the most effective attacker in Europe’s top five leagues, with 16 goals, nine assists, 41 chances created. His game has redefined what many of the leading clubs want from a forward player. What he lacks is a viable alternative destination to drive the market for his salary level. In the post-Covid, post-Barcelona meltdown, European game, there is no-one out there to apply the pressure that he needs to force a decision on Liverpool.

Real Madrid and Barcelona are still buying players – just not at the level of Salah. Real seem confident that they will outbid Paris Saint Germain for the free agency of Kylian Mbappe this summer. Barcelona are acquiring players although not necessarily registering them to play. Certainly no more from Liverpool where the deal agreed by sporting director Michael Edwards for the 2018 sale of Philippe Coutinho might well be remembered as the point the Catalan club finally lost the plot.

Even in March last year, when Salah spoke to another Spanish newspaper, Marca, ahead of the Champions League quarter-final against Real it was enough for him to agree politely that playing in La Liga was an appealing notion for that prospect to be launched into the fevered football news cycle. The Spanish bubble has now burst. It is no longer credible for Salah to pick at the thread of La Liga financial pre-eminence. So where does he go?

One supposes that he could replace Mbappe at PSG. After that, the exit options become harder to achieve and the potential for an exhausting and combative departure looms. A forced exit to Manchester City would be legacy-crushing. Needless to say the same goes for the other Manchester option, which one would dismiss summarily were this not a club where transfer policy could be anything by next year. A fantasy XI encompassing players United wished they had signed in their prime? Perhaps Salah could join as a 31-year-old free agent to complete a heritage forward line comprising Ronaldo and, for argument’s sake, a low mobility, high tricks-quotient, Ronaldinho.

Hard to shake the feeling that Salah is negotiating against himself, and Liverpool are happy to wait him out. The perfect footballer in the wrong era to command the auction for his services that might once have existed between two or three of the superpowers. Real, Barcelona, Chelsea, Manchester City - all have paid big money at different times for Liverpool’s best players. Even Arsenal upped their £40 million offer for Luis Suarez in 2013 by one whole pound. None of Salah's predecessors can beat his numbers but that does not guarantee a certain level of contract if it cannot generate a market.

Age is against him. Klopp generously suggested that Salah could continue at the highest level into his mid-thirties, but that is a hard sell to owners looking at a salary commitment that runs into what many consider football’s old-age. By the time his contract at Anfield expires he will be 31. The old days of panic when a player passed the threshold of two years left on a deal are gone and big clubs have gone into the final years of a contract without blinking.

Mohamed Salah maintains a good relationship with Jurgen Klopp Credit: REUTERS

Fenway Sports Group have been shrewd player traders thus far: top players signed, renewed and occasionally sold at the right times. Even Steven Gerrard was not offered that extra year he craved. Contracts are heavily incentivised by bonuses. There have been no impulse deals that have outlasted player usefulness, such as those signed elsewhere by the likes of Mesut Ozil, Alexis Sanchez and, now it seems, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang. Admittedly FSG has never had to play this chess game with a player as big as Salah, where the stakes in terms of performance, status and fan sentiment have never been higher. Yet so far: no deal.

If Salah’s demands had been as market-appropriate as he suggests one might assume that agreement would have been reached by now, and perhaps it will. Yet the older Salah gets, the more one feels the club in the ascendancy, and another year makes a big difference at his age.

The final dimension is the effect a significant raising of the salary level might have on the wider squad. If Salah has his eye on the kind of deal that Kevin De Bruyne secured at Manchester City then where might that leave Sadio Mane, whose contract also expires in the summer of next year and to a lesser extent, Roberto Firmino. The effect of David De Gea’s 2019 contract at United that changed the expectation of United’s players stands as one such warning.

There is also the question of Klopp’s future and his 2024 contract expiration. All this future planning, the renewal of a squad, perhaps its manager too, has to be accomplished within the boundaries of what is possible. Salah is the best attacking footballer in the world currently but whatever he is asking for thus far has proved eminently declinable for his employers. That says something about the market he is in. A player who could not be performing any better but appears to be running out of ways to convince his club to pay him the price he wants.

 

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2022/01/13/mohamed-salah-victim-unfortunate-timing-worst-moment-superstar/

[VladimirIlyich 9,756]

Selling players on a free doesn't seem to phase FSG at all,which is quite bizarre from so called 'savvy' businessmen. The club have probably missed out on at least 25-30 mill on Can and Wijnaldum during their reign. This would be a disaster for us if Klopp got no funds yet again. It would be the beginning of the end for him and he'd get my sympathy if he walked away in that scenario.

[Daisy 39]

They wouldn't survive letting Salah go on a free. 

 

They are single handedly destroying everything Klopp has built. 

[Aventus 2,603]

What would people consider a reasonable wage? 

 

Obviously if he's asking for 300k we'd say he's worth every penny/pay the fella

 

If he was asking for 700k we'd pull our faces and wonder if he really wants to stay here if he's pricing himself out of the contract. 

 

Where's the line for where we consider FSG taking the piss vs Mo taking the piss? 

[TheDrowningMan 720]

More evidence of how shrewd the owners would be to not make Salah one of the highest paid players in the league. Just think of how fiscally savvy it would be to be pay even more (fee + wages) bringing in Jarrod Bowen to replace him.

[Mark M 1,743]

The best player in the world is going to be valued even higher before he comes back with the shite we have to rely on now he’s away. 
 

[Code 1,550]

Based on tonights performance we should give him £1mill a week, he’s worth it. 

[No2 1,765]

10 minutes ago, TheDrowningMan said:

More evidence of how shrewd the owners would be to not make Salah one of the highest paid players in the league. Just think of how fiscally savvy it would be to be pay even more (fee + wages) bringing in Jarrod Bowen to replace him.

On the other hand the player they gave an extra  year too against their better judgement is already looking like a bad decision. 

[George Costanza 635]

He can add another 50k onto his demands seeing how toothless we are without him.  Our owners need fucking shooting (& i genuinely mean that) if they aren't willing to pay him 350-400k a week (easily the going rate for the best players in the world)  3-4 year deal thats 60-80m investment.  It would cost just the same amount to try & buy a replacement & there's zero guarantee he would perform anywhere near the level Mo has since he joined us.  Given our recent recruitment it'll be likely the 1st bug buy is a big dud & we'll have to spend the same again.  Its a no fucking brainer it really is. 

[Barrington Womble 11,139]

5 hours ago, VladimirIlyich said:

Selling players on a free doesn't seem to phase FSG at all,which is quite bizarre from so called 'savvy' businessmen. The club have probably missed out on at least 25-30 mill on Can and Wijnaldum during their reign. This would be a disaster for us if Klopp got no funds yet again. It would be the beginning of the end for him and he'd get my sympathy if he walked away in that scenario.

Yeah, but that's swings and roundabouts. Look how cheap minamino was. 

[Leyton388 1,889]

They'll sell him in the summer. Sly cunts. 

[Red74 1,635]

£400k per week is cheap for him. Whose out there that can do what he does for us season after season. 
 

He’s looking at shite like Pogba, Rashford and Bruno Fernandez taking home more than him. 
 

£80 mill over 4 years or double that for packaging up someone like Bowen.

 

Give him what he deserves. He’s not an arsehole like Aubameyang, Sanchez or Ozil and we’ll get at least 3 great years from him. 

[clockspeed 243]

10 hours ago, Code said:

Based on tonights performance we should give him £1mill a week, he’s worth it. 

Pay the man shows what a world class player can do for team and how he occupies the opposition . Last night also showed Bellingham needs to be bought end off discussion . Get both done FSG

[VladimirIlyich 9,756]

This Bellingham lad played for Birmingham,then moved to Dortmund? if he's English we are not buying him.

[JustTosh 390]

Quatar and Dubai owned clubs have a big advantage.

 

The club can pay their star players in lne with the club's wage structure and prevent the other players from demanding huge pay rises (Mane would understand he can't be paid more than Salah). If that's not enough for the star player they can add huge payments from businesses outside he club, i.e. big personal sponsor contracts.

[Street Preacher 35]

Even if it is 400k per week, it's better value than paying someone like Oxlade Chamberlain 120k per week as he plays so little and performs well less than that. Add the likes of keita, Minamino etc and it's a false economy. 

 

 

[JagSquared 1,918]

7 minutes ago, Street Preacher said:

Even if it is 400k per week, it's better value than paying someone like Oxlade Chamberlain 120k per week as he plays so little and performs well less than that. Add the likes of keita, Minamino etc and it's a false economy. 

 

 

I’d sell all of them and give Mo the money he wants and we won’t have lost a thing, in fact the surplus could actually pay the wages of a player who can at least contribute. 

[TheHowieLama 13,159]

4 hours ago, JustTosh said:

Quatar and Dubai owned clubs have a big advantage.

 

The club can pay their star players in lne with the club's wage structure and prevent the other players from demanding huge pay rises (Mane would understand he can't be paid more than Salah). 

How do they do this?

[magicrat 7,104]

I'm not stressing about this. Reckon it will get done before the summer.

[dockers_strike 4,194]

2 minutes ago, magicrat said:

I'm not stressing about this. Reckon it will get done before the summer.

I think you're right.