Mohamed Salah has put Liverpool on notice. There was no other way to take his remarks in the aftermath of yet another game-winning performance, insisting that he loves the club but revealing that a formal offer is still yet to be tabled.
Of course, that doesn’t mean negotiations have not taken place. Liverpool, by all accounts, wants to keep Salah, and there have been talks with his agent to try and find common ground — the club would not make a formal offer destined to be rejected, one which would perhaps even leave the Egyptian feeling even more undervalued.
Even so, leaving it this long has clearly already done signficant damage: Salah described himself as “more out than in”, a dire warning to club bosses. While Richard Hughes and Michael Edwards are in some ways in an unenviable position, they will rightly face an immense backlash unless they find a resolution without delay.
One thing we must hope is that this has not become a point of principle for Edwards. The timing of his return to FSG was significant, given that he had left amid growing power for Jurgen Klopp in the decision-making process — this new era was meant to be his chance to really call the shots.
But though Klopp is gone, Salah is a similarly legendary figure. Edwards is known to be averse to handing long deals to players on the wrong side of 30, but he simply has to compromise on his usual way of operating in recognition of the 32-year-old’s continued irreplaceable impact.
Edwards boasts a lot of credit in the bank at Anfield, but that would be unlikely to survive the loss of Salah, especially if parallel situations with Virgil van Dijk and Trent Alexander-Arnold are not resolved. Liverpool needs to accept that it has wandered into a very weak negotiating position, and must now pay up in order to keep the talent it can ill-afford to lose.
Because make no mistake about it, Liverpool would suffer if it lost Salah. How many times has he stepppd up to make the decisive contribution? Game after game, year after year, he is the go-to guy, and nobody else in the world can touch his levels of consistency.
It would be hubris of the highest order for Liverpool to assume it could source a replacement. Even with hundreds of thousands a week in wage costs “saved”, even with a renowned recruitment department made up of industry leaders, it simply isn’t possible to go out and find someone who can do what Salah does.
In a very best case scenario, perhaps Liverpool could find someone who will grow into Salah’s role. But even that assumption risks underplaying the Egyptian: he might well be the best player in the world over the past half-decade or more, so it’s far from a case of finding another raw talent and waiting for the inevitable to happen.
And when push comes to shove, what is Liverpool really quibbling over? Let’s say Salah does finally start to decline in the final 18 months of a deal longer than Edwards and Hughes would have liked to hand out — he would then be overpaid for the last chapter in his Anfield career, but that’s hardly the end of the world when he has already provided such rich value to the club.
After all, even a declining Salah will still be able to make some kind of impact. And anyway, nothing in what we have seen to date suggests that a dip is on the cards any time soon.
Ultimately, failing to do everything possible to agree an extension will cost Liverpool far more than it could possibly hope to save by playing hardball with the contract. The best time to act was months ago — after Salah’s clear warning, the next-best time is today.
