Mohamed Salah is sending Liverpool a clear transfer message as the contract position emerges

Mohamed Salah and Liverpool could be forgiven for feeling deja vu as the Egyptian enters the final year of his contract.

It was just two years ago that the Reds ended months of speculation after months of negotiations to secure the forward’s future. By signing a three-year extension, the club made Salah the highest-paid player in its history. Said to be worth around £350,000-a-week, such a deal has been heavily boosted with goal and assist bonuses, taking that total closer to the £400,000 mark.

Since signing such an extension while on holiday in Mykonos, Salah has returned 55 goals and 29 assists in 95 appearances. Despite struggling for form in the second half of the 2023/24 season after struggling with a hamstring injury, it is certain the club got their money’s worth from the 31-year-old.

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But now Liverpool find themselves in the same familiar position as Salah once again enters the final year of his contract, left to weigh up their options on negotiating another possible extension. And high interest rates in Saudi Arabia complicate matters again.

Al-Ittihad had a £150m verbal bid for the Egypt captain rejected last summer, with the Saudi Pro League sides expected to sniff again should they be given any hint of encouragement that they could try to go on.

However, last week Salah appeared to have committed his future to the Reds for another season, taking to social media just hours after Arne Slot was confirmed as the club’s new head coach.

“We know it’s the trophies that matter and we’ll do everything we can to make that happen next season,” Salah wrote. “Our fans deserve it and we’re going to fight like hell.”

Accordingly, it will be supported later in The Telegraph that the Saudi Pro League was now willing to wait another season to try to lure Salah on a free transfer in 2025. And in an interview with the same outlet published on Tuesday, Michael Emenalo, the executive director of football for the Saudi Pro League, is said to reiterate interest in Liverpool’s Egyptian king.

With Salah turning 32 next month and missing two months of the current campaign through injury, there would be some who would argue that it would make sense for the Reds to sell this summer while they can still command a fee. After all, the Saudi interest has changed the market, with aging stars with expiring deals still able to be sold for a hefty profit.

However, given Salah’s remarkable consistency during his seven years at Anfield, returning 211 goals and 87 assists while winning every major honor in 349 appearances, the counter-argument would be that it’s too soon to cash in and that he might be worthy of another contract. extension. Despite not being up to his usual standards in the second half of last season due to extenuating circumstances, Salah remains Liverpool’s star player and deadliest striker.

His form in the opening months of the new season will either strengthen or weaken such a claim as the club debates what to do with its top star. Salah, meanwhile, is starting to navigate the final year of his contract and continues to inch closer to a possible Bosman exit in 2025 as the Saudi Pro League awaits – ready to test the player’s resolve, if not the club’s.

So what makes the best business sense for Liverpool? While a lucrative offer this summer might be tempting, would Salah’s efforts in the Premier League and Champions League in 2024/25 be worth more – even if he then ends up leaving for nothing?

In the meantime, could he keep his levels up long enough to warrant another lucrative contract extension? Salah would argue yes, boasting the ultimate in self-belief – as demonstrated by his latest spur-of-the-moment extension as he backed himself to primarily repeat his level of the past five years. But he should decide accordingly, as a result of Roșii’s information.

For what it’s worth, most of Jurgen Klopp’s modern Liverpool legends, who have won both the Premier League and the Champions League, have already left the club. While you could argue that some stayed at Anfield too long, there was no regret or suggestion that any left too soon.

When Salah extended his latest contract until 2025, club chiefs believed such an expiry was still within the former Chelsea man’s “peak years”. Such a stance would suggest the Reds were not yet anticipating a decline and another extension is possible.

Salah’s own position in 2022 was that he had no interest in being sold. At the time he was understood to have indicated he would either renew his contract, which was his preference, or leave on a free transfer.

Given his latest admission on social media, seemingly pledging his future to Liverpool for another season, such a position seems unchanged. If so, with a summer exit ruled out, it would appear that Salah either leaves for free in 2025 or signs another extension.

He will be backing himself to continue repeating his peak from now on, no doubt through to 2025 and beyond, keen to prove that the disastrous end to his recent campaign was just a fluke. But with a question mark still hanging over Salah’s head when it comes to his longer-term future, the crucial question remains, Liverpool?