Mohamed Salah’s preference would be to stay in the Premier League if he is to leave Liverpool next summer.
That’s according to The Athletic, who claim that Salah is still waiting for a ‘significantly improved’ contract offer from Liverpool.
Should one fail to arrive, he will leave on a free when his deal expires next summer. If that were to happen, Salah would reportedly prefer to stay in England at one of Liverpool’s rivals.
It’s claimed that the Egyptian will ‘snub’ any attempts to secure his services this summer, as he’s fully committed to Liverpool next season.
But unless a suitable offer arrives, Salah will be on his way in 2023.
Further details of Salah’s contract demands
There’s a lot to unpack here. Some details of Liverpool’s current offer to Salah are also outlined in The Athletic this morning.
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The Reds reportedly offered Mo an increase of around 15% on his current earnings. The Athletic report that ‘sources close to the player’ believe that this package would have made him the sixth best paid player on the planet.
Apparently, this wasn’t quite enough for Salah.
However, there is some silver lining in that it’s claimed Liverpool’s top-scorer from last season would be willing to accept a two year, rather than four year deal.
On the kind of wages he’s asking for, perhaps that would make it more palatable to the Liverpool hierarchy.
Is Mo worth the money?
If Salah had maintained his form for the full 2021/22 season and delivered Liverpool one of the two main trophies, this kind of talk would be more palatable.
But he has struggled massively since the turn of the year. He also failed to deliver in the Champions League final despite some pretty strong fighting talk beforehand.
It’s true that in Paris he came up against a ‘keeper having the game of his life in Thibaut Courtois. Still though, he had the opportunities to make himself a hero in the French capital and he didn’t take any of them.
As such, legitimate questions may be asked whether Salah’s contract is worth the hassle at this point.
Yes, he still managed a third Premier League Golden Boot and he was superb in the first half of the season. But Liverpool have a very specific wage structure. On current form, Mo isn’t worth breaking that for.