James Pearce gives worrying Salah contract update as Liverpool may have to break with tradition
James Pearce has shared an update on Mo Salah’s contract situation at Liverpool which could provide cause for concern among Liverpool fans.
The Egyptian is into the final year of his £350,000-per-week deal at Anfield (Capology), and having turned 32 in June, speculation has been rife as to whether or not he’ll be offered an extension at the club.
In an article for The Athletic, the journalist wrote that ‘so far there’s no sign of a new [contract] being offered’.
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Pearce added: “It’s well known that Liverpool’s owners are cautious about giving lucrative extensions to players in their thirties but Salah simply isn’t your typical 32-year-old. He’s a machine. Having temporarily malfunctioned in the spring, he is now firing on all cylinders once again.”
It may help that ‘there’s been no hint of irritation from the player’s camp over entering his contract’s final year’, and the journalist opined that Anfield chiefs ‘should be doing everything they possibly can to nail him down for another two or three years’.
Pearce is echoing many of the points that we’ve previously made about Salah – pragmatically it mightn’t make sense to offer a new deal to a player who’ll turn 33 next year and is already his club’s highest earner, but the Egyptian’s qualities are at a very rarefied level.
The report for The Athletic also details how Liverpool’s number 11 has set a perfect example in pre-season with his own personal training standards and the ‘positive environment’ he’s helped to create by freely offering support and advice to the squad’s younger players.
Meanwhile, we saw with his starring performance (and traditional opening day goal) against Ipswich on Saturday that he still looks as sharp as ever on matchday and could potentially net 30 or more this term, which’d elevate him to third in the club’s all-time scoring charts by May if he hits that number.
It would be criminal for Anfield chiefs to allow one of the greatest players in our history to simply walk away next June on a free transfer because they were too scared to break with tradition and give him the new deal that his performances clearly merit.
We wouldn’t advocate handing lucrative contract extensions to too many players who are closing in on the mid-30s bracket, but Mo Salah isn’t someone to be lumped in with the norm. He’s the exception to justify breaking a long-held rule among the hierarchy in L4.
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