Liverpool fans clash on Mo Salah contract; one year or THREE on table?

Liverpool fans don’t agree on Mo Salah; should the Reds treat him as a special case or offer him a year and hope he signs?

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Give Salah a year
There’s a few ways to look at this.

The sentimental approach, he has done a lot for the club and is arguably the second best winger the league has seen (Henry being top) and so he has earned that contract.

We thought the same of Hendo and Milner and we got lucky Saudi Arabia took those terrible contracts off our hands.

The practical approach, he is scoring and assisting a lot. Surely it’s an asset to keep him.

He is…this year. But next year will be an afcon year and every single time he goes to afcon he doesn’t come back until the following season as his form totally disappears and he starts to be a hindrance.

I’d give him one year personally. At his current salary. If that’s not good enough perhaps it’s better to let him go. Slot is gonna need to rebuild some parts of the team and we are not a rich team so using a significant chunk of our budget to (attempt) to hold onto the past instead of moving into the future seems like a mistake. You should never let players get older without having someone to step in and we don’t have even one player in Salah’s position who can fill in, largely because we keep spending the budget for replacing him on new contracts for him.

Great player and servant but everyone’s career has an end and asking for more than 350k a week and min of two year contracts at 34 years old is insane. The club needs to focus on the future and I don’t blame Salah for focusing on himself, that’s a player’s prerogative. I’d say the same of Van Dijk too.

Trent is 26 in the peak of his career and value so it’s a different discussion.
Lee

READ: When every Premier League club will face their Salah panic over highest earner

Sort it, FSG
As a Liverpool fan it’s not often I feel the majority of other fans will be in agreement with me. But dear God, can these contracts be wrapped up so we can concentrate on the actual football going on. If I have to listen to another pundit or newly found economics/moneyball gurus talk about it I think my head will explode. I know, I know, I’m talking about it myself now but I just need to get this off my chest so I can go to sleep tonight and think of nothing else other than that sweet sweet 8 point lead at the top of the table.

So to begin with let’s be clear, this situation never should have been allowed to happen. Having three of your most important players ALL in the final year of their contracts is madness. But here we are. The reasons why this has played out how it has will never fully be known, and frankly doesn’t matter now. Money, Klopp, new challenges, whatever. Time to shit or get off the pot.

I’ve always thought that of the three, two would sign and one would leave and I’ve not moved from this position. I hope I’m wrong and all three sign up for more of the good stuff Arne Slot is producing but again, time will tell.

I hope I’m wrong but I think Trent Alexander-Arnold is gone. Real Madrid love a free transfer and it’s either now or never if he wants to join them and he knows it. No matter how good he is, and let’s be brutally honest here, Real are never paying £100m for a right back and that would be in the region of what Liverpool would want if he was under contract.

I love TAA and have written into this very Mailbox to say as much. I do feel though if you are to lose one, he’s the one I’d begrudgingly choose. I know he’s the youngest, got the most value on a spreadsheet and an incredible player but for me (and I’m sure Il get some push back in this) he’s the least crucial of the three right now and the one who provides less of a headache to replace as Connor Bradley is already in the squad. And….he’s a right-back. Damn that hurt to write out.

This brings us to the two I think will ultimately stay. Big Virg and Mo Salah.

As far as the money side of things goes, I know FFP plays a part and clubs have to tread a little more carefully than in the past with spend and the duration of contracts. But honestly, some players are special and deserve to be treated as such. I listened to a fairly well known Liverpool podcast the other day and found myself shaking my head as one of the lads ranted on about how the players should be taking heavily incentivised contracts at this age, basically getting paid as long as they deliver the goods but getting sweet FA if not. I mean this is cloud cuckoo land.

Nobody in their right mind is signing arguably their last big contract and not getting as much guaranteed money as possible. As I once heard American Pundit Nick Wright comment on a contract situation in the NFL “Why should a millionaire take a pay cut to save a Billionaire money?”. Pay them!

As far as contract duration goes, I think you have to throw the rulebook out the window too. Rules apply to mere mortals. These two are demi-gods! Both can make a case for still being the best in their position in the league right now. More importantly for me, you just can’t replace them! You can’t. Impossible.

Van Dijk may not be quite what he was pre-injury but he’s still a monster. More importantly is his presence on the field and how he makes the rest of the defenders so at ease and full of confidence. As good as Konate is, I’m not sure he has that and I’m not sure who else out there does. If he loses half a yard so be it, he’s still dominant in the air at both ends of the pitch and retains his passing range. I’d give him a 3 year extension without batting an eyelid.

As for Mo Salah, what can I say. He’s the best player in the league right now. A genuinely World Class player. You just don’t let that player walk away. I don’t care about his age. He is not only the biggest goal threat in the side by a country mile but he’s also the most likely to set up a teammate. All I can say is he must mishit a shit ton of shots that end up as incredible assists if the selfish brigade are right.

There is no argument for not giving the man a huge contract. He wants 3 years? You draft that mother up this afternoon! Now he wants 4 to take him to 36. DONE! Even if his legs fall off after a couple of seasons (which I can’t see happening) you have the insurance of him still being the biggest want in the Saudi League. Art best they will still get a very respectable fee or at worst somebody over there will happily pay him more than what he is on at Liverpool. No excuses. Sign that man up!

Ooof. I feel better for all that. But…..

SORT IT FSG AND GET THEM ALL SIGNED!!!!
Adam (Leeds)

Antony: Sh*t not lazy
I scrolled through your article about which United players will be staying or going and it prompted me to do something I never imagined; stick up for Antony.

You see, Antony is a lot of things. “Absolute dogshit” and “arguably the worst pound-for-pound in Premier League history” are chief amongst those things, but having a “lack of willingness to defend” isn’t fair at all. The one thing he actually consistently has done when he’s played is track back and help out his full back. His abject failure as a United player is nothing to do with a lack of work rate or willingness, rather a lack of pace, football IQ, talent and not grasping that human beings are bipedal.

So yeah, feel free to slag him off for being rubbish at football, but it’s not for a lack of trying.
Lewis, Busby Way

Man Utd were never going to be fixed in one game
Amorin in the winners because he got a draw and didn’t heighten expectations, WTF?

The amount of knee jerkery is ridiculous even for Man Utd. Utd had their new manager bounce under Ruud, we started scoring, and winning. And now, after two training sessions Amorin went straight into a new formation. To expect anything good out of the first few games would be pretty stupid and to lambast players’ performance who have not had any time to train in the systems is just as ridiculous. If you’re a fan you should be supporting the manager and the players he has to make work – they get a clean slate now, give them a chance.

Personally, I salute Amorin for ripping the band aid off immediately. He went straight into his new formation despite that it probably wasn’t the most likely way to have got the 3 points – carrying on where Ruud left it may have worked better but what would be the point if we’re going to a new formation. We had square pegs in round holes, we have some players missing and we seem to have only one striker in the club and his name isn’t Marcus.

Maybe after 10 games in we can start to assess where we are but right now throwing Rashford, Casemiro, Eriksen and whoever else under the bus is ridiculous. There was plenty of confusion in the middle of the park which probably shouldn’t be surprising as that is the biggest change to the formation and we didn’t create much which is pretty much what we’ve been doing for years – no-one can fix that in one game with minimal training.

How about some positives. Shaw is back, I hope. Mainoo seems to be back and Yoro might also be close to appearing. Mazroui has been solid all season and Onana is top drawer (he’s actually looked top drawer since day 1 despite the media narrative). With a full squad to choose from and some training sessions under their belt there’s no reason why this squad cannot play the new boss’s game. Whether they can play it well enough and whether it will make much difference in the current mess of a club we are, we will just have to wait and see…
Jon, Cape Town (This league is about small margins, just ask our noisy neighbours. I’ll take this new lease of hope over the despair it replaces)

…It was John Nicholson who should’ve coined the ‘new word of the year ‘ as he was lamenting/slightly ranting in a JN type role-play not too far away from Roy Quinoa’s filthily angry, pundit schtick.

Man United were held up in his piece as ‘all that is wrong or has become wrong with modern football’ (and indeed the U.K. – perhaps even the world )- quelle horreur !

The enshittification of a once proud, working-class centred, football team from the north west. Gone the same way as the product that is sold worldwide as EPL.

Was the start of this depressing process Pini Zahavi? Kia Joorabchian? Who can say exactly. Newcastle United not winning the league after Blackburn Rovers had done so perhaps?

I don’t think City will be in the doldrums for long, a few ins and outs over the winter, a new scheme from Pep & his backroom staff, a smidgeon of rawdogging or whatever the sauds do to their prisoners and they’ll be testing Liverpool’s squad depth come March I reckon, along with the post Abramovich Hammersmith mob.

I wouldn’t be surprised if Liverpool changed in a few players for the ‘far less important‘ merengues visit so as to keep things a little fresher for the first of December top two clash.

Surely it won’t be as bad as that 2-5 reverse a while ago.
Peter (big up for Kieran McKenna) Andalucia

Sky v Amorim
Since Amorim has been announced as Utd manager, Sky have:

Asked him to speak in English when he was still managing Sporting.
Disrupted his post-match interview by allowing Ed Sheeran on the pitch.

Sky should apologise in both cases. Sheeran should apologise also – for the intrusion and Galway Girl.
Simon S, Cheshire

Foot race?
I think it’s okay to just say race and not foot race. Not sure anyone will think you are talking about anything else. The term is also now commonly in use in TV studios where the smug little twats can’t hide the fact they think they are clever for using it, so best you guys move on.
Finlay x

Non-incident-specific VAR chat
Been saving a VAR comment up for a week without a huge VAR incident to avoid notions of bias.

I find it really strange that the referees are receiving a live interpretation of events while they are trying to process them. If I had this at my job it would be so confusing. What’s more it seems like they have multiple people on the mic at Stockley Park with a line directly to the refs ear.

Am I misunderstanding how the system works? Should it not be that the Stockley park audio is only audible for the ref when they have a conclusion to pass on or if he requests a dialogue.

Could this be a less exciting explanation about why the refs have been quite so awful this season?

Nice one
James