Mohamed Salah doesn’t give many interviews, but the Egyptian spoke to Sky Sports both before and after Liverpool’s 3-0 thrashing of Man United. Clearly, the Liverpool forward had something to say.
“I don’t want to think about next year, I don’t want to think about the future,” he said in an interview in the lead up to the Old Trafford clash. “Just ‘OK, let’s enjoy the last year [of my contract] and we’ll see.”
Post-match, having just assisted two and scored another, the 32-year-old was more emphatic - whether intentionally or not. “Honestly, I had a good summer, I had a long time to stay with myself and try to think positive because as you know it’s my last year in the club,” he told Daniel Sturridge and the Sky Sports panel.
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The words “my last year in the club” more than perked the ears and raised the eyebrows of anyone associated with Liverpool FC.
It was a seemingly emphatic statement, and even though he used the term “could be the last time” later in the interview, he was referring to playing at Old Trafford, where, of course, he could well play again for another team or should the Reds meet their rivals in cup competition this season.
Then came the hammer blow: “Nobody in the club talked to me yet about contracts, so I’ve said ‘OK, I’ll play my last season and in the end we’ll see’.”
Now, this likely is Salah using the media to push Liverpool into entering contract talks, or he could genuinely be happy to walk away on a free transfer when his contract expires next summer after eight years at Anfield.
Salah last signed a contract in the summer of 2022, taking him reportedly to the £350,000 per week salary. It was before signing that new deal that he gave two interviews to Spanish media and Real Madrid outlet, Marca. When asked about his future then, his words were very similar to now: "It's not up to me. We'll see what happens but I prefer not to talk about that now.”
Salah and his advisers know how to use the media to get what they want.
Liverpool should offer Salah a new deal: he's not your average 32-year-old
No matter which way you spin it, it would be a huge failing to allow a player of Salah’s stature and value to depart on a free transfer at the end of the season. This is a player whom Liverpool turned down a £150 million bid for just over 12 months ago. Financially, you simply cannot allow him to depart on a free transfer.
Then, of course, there’s the footballing case which is pretty straightforward. Replacing him would cost more than his £18 million per year wages. The key thing here is that Salah is not your average 32-year-old; far from it.
Last year a Harvard Business School case study featured Salah’s last contract renewal and included quotes from the player himself saying: “I’ve learned throughout my career that if you want to be successful it is important to invest in yourself not just physically but also mentally.”
In an interview earlier this year, Salah explained: “I work in the gym every day for almost one and half hours, most of the time I go home and work again.” But not just that, he detailed his mental training, sitting alone for 15 minutes with his eyes closed each day to meditate and visualise.
Salah is renowned for his application to physical performance, with his fitness levels well beyond those of a typical 32-year-old. His house has two rooms dedicated to his fitness machines, including a cryotherapy chamber, a hyperbaric chamber, and pilates equipment.
“I am constantly looking for new machines to improve my physical condition,” he told France Football previously. “It’s true that I like to say that my house looks like a hospital, [but] my wife doesn’t like that! [She] says that I spend more time with my machines than with her!”
Less than a year ago Jurgen Klopp said of Salah’s supreme fitness levels: “Off the pitch he behaves like a grown-up man but besides that he’s still a young player. He’s so fit. I think if we scan him the majority of the bones are probably 19 or 20 (years old) because he just keeps in such good shape.”
The Reds’ No.11 regularly posts late-night/early-morning workouts or recovery sessions from swimming pools or his home gym. He is dedicated to his physical routine.
The numbers on the pitch back it up, too. So far, albeit in only three matches this season, Salah is covering more distance per game, making significantly more sprints per game, and more ‘pressures in the final third’ per game than any of the previous three seasons.
Perhaps there was a clue here in the other comments that got lost amidst Salah’s post-United interview, with him speaking about Arne Slot’s pressing style now and how it is “quite similar to like seven years ago” under Klopp.
“If you are with a manager for seven years somehow you get into your comfort zone,” he admitted.
Clearly, there’s the potential for Salah to have a new lease of life under Slot, especially given the Dutchman’s impressive and detailed approach to fitness alongside Ruben Peeters, the head of physical performance who joined Slot at Liverpool from Feyenoord.
The Liverpool squad have been incorporating plenty of physical fitness work into their day-to-day training regimes, with medicine balls and rugby-style tackle pads utilised. Such innovation will be something Salah embraces.
Salah is 33 next summer when his current deal is currently due to expire. Liverpool must be offering him another two years beyond that, which would take him to age 35. That would open up the potential for a sale in 2026, when he’s aged 34, thus ensuring he doesn’t depart for free.
The other contract problems Liverpool have
Of course, Salah’s isn’t the only contract expiring at Anfield this season, with Virgil van Dijk and Trent Alexander-Arnold both out of contract in less than 12 months - and free to talk to foreign clubs in just four months’ time.
It would be negligent to let any of the trio depart for free, even if two of them are entering their mid-30s. Van Dijk is a year older than Salah and turns 34 next summer, but much like Salah he isn’t a typical player of that age.
There is a theory that suggests that players who aren’t playing at the very top level, or at least in English football, in their early career, have more longevity. We aren’t talking about players such as Michael Owen or Wayne Rooney who are overplayed in their teens and early 20s before burning out early in their career. Salah was playing in Switzerland until age 21, while Van Dijk’s move to the Premier League occurred at age 24.
That duo are keen to cement their legacy at Liverpool by adding another Premier League title to the one they won in 2020. Salah, in particular, is seeking records in terms of goalscoring, where he now sits fifth in Liverpool’s all-time list - he needs 15 more this season to reach fourth. A contract extension, though, could see him get the 72 needed to beat Roger Hunt into second behind Ian Rush.
It won’t be an easy negotiation, but the last contract extension was actually overseen by then sporting director Julian Ward, who has recently returned as FSG’s technical director, working alongside Michael Edwards (CEO of Football), and LFC sporting director Richard Hughes. The trio must use all their experience to strike a deal with Salah’s savvy agent, Ramy Abbas.
Liverpool simply can’t allow this season to become Salah’s farewell tour and a distraction like last season was Klopp’s.
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