It has been far from a positive start to the summer for Liverpool. With Anfield still under the cloud of losing a Champions League final, Sadio Mané has decided to leave, and one of the club’s top transfer targets, Aurélien Tchouaméni, looks set to join Real Madrid, the Reds’ conquerors in Paris. .
And to make matters worse, news broke on Wednesday – via Athletic – that Mohamed Salah is hoping his contract will expire and he will leave the club with a free transfer next summer. Significantly, Salah’s preference is to remain in the Premier League, and therefore the prospect, hitherto unthinkable, of the Egyptian becoming a rival is now a real possibility (although it seems likely that it was a deliberate ploy by the its representatives to evoke exactly that). reaction).
At this stage, the situation seems a bit bleak. Salah has just over a year to execute his contract, but there have been no negotiations since December and it is unclear when talks will resume. Neither side seems willing to compromise.
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Many Liverpool fans, and even some of Salah’s teammates, will be worried. The biggest star on the team might be about to leave for nothing. But is Kylian Mbappé’s example a source of hope?
Mbappé seemed destined to leave Paris Saint-Germain. Real Madrid may already be planning a spectacular opening ceremony at the Santiago Bernabeu, while the same player reportedly lined up property visits to the Spanish capital.
But just five weeks before Mbappé’s contract expired, he made an impressive U-turn and put pencils on a new deal. Within days, the landscape had changed dramatically.
PSG did everything possible to keep the 23-year-old phenomenon alive, as Adam Crafton explained. They abandoned their plan to hand him a long-term contract when it became clear that Mbappé was not interested in a five- or six-year deal. Instead, he signed for three.
They also agreed to pay him 40 million euros a year, which is equivalent to £ 650,000 a week. But perhaps most of all, they promised to make him the ‘center’ of their business operations, even though arguably the greatest player of all time is already in their books.
Liverpool will not negotiate with the same desperation as the Champions League 1, but they will not do the same. need to go so far. Salah, Athletic says, is “only” asking for a salary to turn him into sixth-the highest paid player in the world.
What they may have to do, though, is tend to have tense relationships. Sources told The Athletic that Mbappé required “extra attention and TLC” before considering an extension.
And in the same way, Salah’s camp may have been a little disappointed. In what could have been a revealing vision, his agent, Ramy Abbas Issa, tweeted several laughing emojis shortly after Jürgen Klopp suggested that “the club did what it could.” Salah may feel undervalued, as Liverpool are refusing to hand him a contract that would put him at the top of the world. After all, he has offered an elite production year after year: 44 goals in his first season, followed by 27, 23 and then 31 in the last two seasons.
Having reached these levels, he insists that he does not ask for “crazy things.” If Liverpool want to make another push, it must be ensured that the atmosphere between the two sides is conducive to a breakthrough, and this may require a charming offense.
The 29-year-old does not appear to have any specific movements yet. With more than 12 months to go, Mbappé is not far behind.
The comparison with the situation of the Frenchman is not perfect, but what he does show is that things can change until 11 o’clock. And in this brinkmanship game, the nightmare idea of potentially losing Salah to Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City could force Liverpool to blink.
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