It appears that there’s a degree of urgency from Liverpool’s point of view to get a new contract agreed with Mo Salah.
According to Football Insider, owners Fenway Sports Group would like to tie the Egyptian King down to a new deal before the January transfer window opens.
The stumbling block at this stage appears to be the demands being put on the table by Salah’s representative, Rami Abbas.
The report states he is holding out for £500,000 per week for his client, which would shatter the salary structure at the club.
Whilst Salah is clearly a man in the form of his life at present, which, frankly, couldn’t be more timely ahead of contract negotiations, the notion that he’s worth half a million pounds a week is a contentious point.
Once FSG agree to such a vast sum of money, assuming that they will, it would open a real can of worms across the squad with others surely looking for financial parity with Salah once their own deals are up for renewal.
The flip side to not acceding to Salah’s wishes of course is that Liverpool will need to be prepared to lose him at the end of the current campaign, when he’ll have just a year left on his current deal.
At present, it’s a poker game where the player and his representative hold all the aces, and John W. Henry needs to decide if he’ll fold or go all in.