If Arne Slot is compiling a list of his Liverpool priorities, keeping Mohamed Salah at Anfield should be number one. Simple as that. And keeping Mohamed Salah happy should be number two.
It has been suggested by some well-respected pundits that Slot might be better off without Salah, that it might be best all-round if the Egyptian’s Anfield career comes to an end. With respect to those well-respected pundits, how on earth would Slot be better off without a player who is already an all-time Premier League great and remains in peak condition?
How on earth would Slot be better off without a player who has scored 210 goals in his 346 appearances for the club? How on earth would Slot be better off without a player who has made 88 assists in that time?
Salah’s form might have dipped a little recently but he has an absolute minimum of three years’ elite football left in him. If you consider his fitness record over the length of his playing career – and 346 appearances in seven seasons really is remarkable – it would not be a surprise if Salah carried on well into his late thirties. And carried on scoring well into his late thirties.
What Liverpool should be doing as soon as possible – and what Slot should be urging them to do – is putting together a contract offer for Salah, whose current deal expires in the summer of 2025. He will turn 35 in June of 2027 and it would not be too much of a risk to try and tie him down until then.
In that sort of offer, there would also be an element of gratitude for what Salah has already done for the club. Over the past seven years, he has been Liverpool’s most important, most influential player.
Twice the Football Writers’ Footballer of the Year, twice the PFA Player of the Year, three times Liverpool players’ Player of the Year, three times a Golden Boot winner, his consistent excellence is now almost taken for granted. As Jurgen Klopp is deified on his impending departure, no-one has done more than Salah to give the German his successful times.
And if Salah – Liverpool’s top Premier League scorer with 17 goals this season – was annoyed with Klopp for putting him on the bench for the West Ham game on Saturday, no wonder. Yes, no-one is undroppable. Yes, no-one is bigger than the team. But there has to be something seriously amiss with a player of Salah’s quality if he is to lose his starting place to Harvey Elliott – no offence to Harvey Elliott.
It might be the case Salah actually wants to leave this summer. It might be the case Salah intends to run down the final year of his contract and go on a free transfer. And if and when that is the case, Liverpool will move on without him. But moving on WITH him would make Arne Slot’s job a whole lot easier.
