Transfer insider: FSG want Mo Salah to stay but have one big question mark over offering new deal

Liverpool fans were rocked by the news on Monday morning that Mo Salah hasn’t yet received any offer for a contract extension at Anfield, with his current deal just seven months away from expiring.

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In one phrase which’ll send shivers down the spine of every Reds supporter, the 32-year-old claimed that he’s ‘probably more out than in’ regarding his long-term future on Merseyside and insisted that the decision is out of his hands.

James Pearce and Melissa Reddy have both since moved to try and soothe Kopites’ nerves by pointing out that the absence of a contract offer doesn’t strictly mean that there’s been no negotiations, and that the Egyptian very much wants to remain at the club.

FSG unsure over length of contract offer for Salah

Writing for TBR Football on Monday, transfer insider Graeme Bailey reported that FSG are keen to retain Salah, but have one major reservation about offering him a new deal.

It’s claimed that talks have taken place between club and player, but some ‘major hurdles remain’ which have prevented a formal contract offer from being presented, with the main issue believed to be the length of any new proposal.

The Egyptian is understood to want either a three-year deal or two years with the option to extend if desired, although Liverpool are reluctant to commit to that duration due to concerns over a potential decline in output by the time he reaches his mid-30s.

Keeping Salah for 2-3 more years is a no-brainer

Usually we’d acknowledge that FSG are taking a prudent and pragmatic stance with a reluctance to offer a long-term extension to a player who’s on £350,000 per week (Capology) and will turn 33 next summer. However, as we’ve known for some time, the normal rules don’t apply when it comes to Salah.

Inevitably the time will come that his form will diminish, but the simple truth is that there’s no sign of it happening any time soon. He’s already on 12 goals and 10 assists for this season before the end of November, and he came up clutch for Liverpool yesterday with a brace in their time of need against Southampton.

Reddy summed it up perfectly by pointing out that, for the Reds to purchase a player who brings the tangible and intangible qualities that the 32-year-old offers so consistently would require an enormous cost and that he continually makes the ‘extraordinary the norm’.

For FSG, the question shouldn’t be ‘Can we afford to keep Salah for 2-3 more years?’, but rather ‘Can we afford NOT to retain a player whose output is among the best in the club’s history?’

Even the offer of a two-year extension with the option for a further 12 months should be viable for Liverpool in terms of reward outweighing risk. Based on what we’ve seen from the Egyptian King on the pitch, we don’t envisage any significant drop-off in output in that length of time.