Mohamed Salah’s contract is operating down - why aren’t Liverpool doing something?

Liverpool have already had one bombshell announcement in 2024. Briefly, there appeared one other. Jurgen Klopp picked a quiet Friday morning, the day earlier than an FA Cup tie towards Norwich, to announce a departure none had envisaged. Mohamed Salah waited for a 3-0 demolition of Manchester United, a recreation when he made two targets earlier than scoring one himself, to declare: “It’s my final yr within the membership”.

However Salah had not picked Previous Trafford to deliver explosive notice of his exit. He meant the final yr of his contract. They could possibly be one and the identical, although. “No one within the membership has talked to me about contracts,” stated Salah. However they’ve talked to a proper winger about one; simply not him, however Federico Chiesa, who has signed on for four years. One chance is that Liverpool have a successor already within the constructing.

A principle, although, is that Salah is the very best proper winger of their historical past, or the Premier League’s; at the same time as Erling Haaland has usurped him because the excellent goalscorer within the division now, Salah spent the primary half of final season as arguably the best all-round attacker. He appears to have assumed that standing once more now: a trio of video games have introduced three targets and three assists. Salah arrange Luis Diaz for a brace, scored with knowledgeable precision and tormented Diogo Dalot, making him look a makeshift left-back.

After which got here a well timed reminder that he lingers in limbo. Salah is cute sufficient to choose his second. United will hope there will likely be few extra. “I used to be coming to the sport it could possibly be the final time [playing at Old Trafford],” he stated. United should hope so: he has scored 14 instances in his final 10 appearances towards them. Maybe extra pertinently, after a mere three targets in his final 11 matches for Klopp, he has three in three for Arne Slot.

“He’s one in all ours and I’m actually pleased with him being one in all ours,” stated the Dutchman. “I don’t speak about contracts.” The priority is that director of soccer Richard Hughes and Fenway Sports activities Group’s CEO of soccer, Michael Edwards, who’re presupposed to, don’t appear to speak about contracts, both: they’ve not held discussions with Virgil van Dijk nor, seemingly, Trent Alexander-Arnold.

All of which may really feel odd. It threatens to imply Slot’s sophomore season turns into a transitional yr after he’s stripped of arguably his three most influential gamers, in some circumstances needlessly. Having rejected a £150m bid from Saudi Arabia for Salah, they might lose him for nothing. And if Klopp’s Liverpool have been by no means nervous Salah would go away final yr, it’s partially as a result of he confirmed little curiosity in taking the tens of millions on supply.

Now the equation is altered. “It’s not as much as me,” stated Salah. But he’s comfortable, although not essentially demob comfortable. “I wish to take pleasure in it,” he stated of what may show his closing marketing campaign at Anfield. It has began fantastically however August excellence could also be predictable: he tends to be a swift starter to seasons. He has scored on every of his final seven journeys to Previous Trafford so, in a way, this was regular.

The larger shock would be the lack of motion off the pitch. It follows the Schmadtke interregnum, when Jorg Schmadtke was interim sporting director, placing the whole lot on pause. Now Liverpool have extra scope to plan for the long run however earlier than bringing in Chiesa – and Giorgi Mamardashvili, potentially Alisson’s long-term replacement – Hughes was neither signing nor re-signing gamers.

In Salah’s case, and Van Dijk’s, it might replicate a coverage of Liverpool’s homeowners. It might need been defined partially by United, eternally Liverpool’s antithesis. If Salah, with Diaz, was the very best participant on the pitch at Previous Trafford, the worst was Casemiro, given a four-year deal in his thirties. He has declined quick: Fenway Sports activities Group prefer to predict the longer term and forestall such expensive errors.

They’ve a reluctance to offer the thirty-somethings lengthy and profitable offers. It led to Gini Wijnaldum’s departure, with FSG in all probability feeling vindicated as his fortunes deteriorated elsewhere. They in all probability regretted the four-year deal given to Jordan Henderson, even when his transfer to Al-Ettifaq meant they by no means needed to honour it. They didn’t lengthen the contracts of Roberto Firmino and James Milner when Klopp needed to maintain two of his favourites.

Now Salah and Van Dijk are the oldest of the outdated guard, the ahead paid greater than anybody else ever at Anfield. However the Egyptian, formidably match, nonetheless quick, is proving an exception to many a rule. He has outlasted his sidekicks Firmino and Sadio Mane at Anfield, but in addition as an elite ahead. The Brazilian and the Senegalese have been excellent gamers for Liverpool however they scored 231 targets for the membership between them: Salah, with 214 on his personal, ought to prime that early in 2025.

Maybe Liverpool are nonetheless ready, to see if Salah will tail off the nearer he will get to his thirty third birthday. Within the meantime, they’re watching him: creating, scoring, starring. The longer they delay, nonetheless, the nearer he will get to a departure and the extra inexplicable an deadlock seems.