Robbie Fowler has sent a pointed message to Liverpool’s powerbrokers as the summer transfer window looms ever larger.
With Arne Slot taking over from Jurgen Klopp, and Richard Hughes stepping into the role of sporting director, it could be an off-season of considerable change in terms of the playing squad at Anfield too.
Amid a flurry of reported targets for FSG, there has also been speculation regarding the futures of some current Reds players, including a certain Mo Salah.
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Speaking to Crypto Casino (via Liverpool Echo), Fowler has urged his former club to keep hold of the Egyptian, no matter how enticing an offer might arrive from Saudi Arabia.
The 49-year-old said of our number 11: “He has not played well since January, but he’s still scored goals. For me, you have got to keep him, but there will be a point where he has to go. But that is the same for a lot of the players at the club currently and that happens in football.
“Personally, I want him to stay and I want him to be successful because if he plays to his best then he is world class and he can help the club win trophies. If he can return to being the player that we know he can, it’s an easy decision.”
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We firmly agree with Fowler on this time – there’ll come a point where Liverpool must say goodbye to Salah, but that moment hasn’t arrived yet.
True, a return of two goals in his final nine league games of the season was miles below the 31-year-old’s usual standards, but 25 in all competitions for the campaign as a whole maintains his remarkable consistency throughout his seven years at Anfield (Transfermarkt).
As ‘God’ himself has said, even when the Egyptian is on the periphery of games, he can always be relied upon to conjure a moment of magic from nothing and make a decisive impact for his team.
That’s why his overall goal tally for the club stands at 211, a figure that only four other men in Liverpool’s 132-year history can better.
It’s bad enough that Klopp has left without us also losing our talismanic forward, but thankfully a tweet from Salah in recent days offered a strong clue that he has no intention of leaving for the foreseeable future, and hopefully he’ll agree a contract extension to remain at Anfield to keep him here beyond his current 2025 expiry.