The assessment of Mohamed Salah’s decision to stop in the mixed zone – only the third time he has done so at Liverpool – was interesting. Jamie Carragher labelled it “selfish” and said it would be a distraction ahead of the Champions League tussle with Real Madrid.
The counter-argument was: why should a player with 320 direct goal involvements in 367 games for the club have to publicly pressure them to actually make an offer?
Perhaps the most overlooked element of Sunday’s comments from Salah is that he felt the need to speak because he wants to stay. He is not just considering his future, but that of his family and there is minimal time to plot the next step.
‘Why doesn’t he just accept whatever Liverpool’s terms are then?’
Well, why should he? It feels daft to reel off the numbers, his status of being the first player to reach double figures in Europe’s top leagues for both goals and assists this season, to spell out what he has contributed since his signing in July 2017.
Salah is undoubtedly still Liverpool’s reference point and his influence stretches beyond the pitch, where the club have profited from new markets and sponsorships on the back of the Egyptian. He is valuable in a way and scale no other player has managed at Anfield.
And he works hard for it; his mental and physical conditioning as well as his acumen when making business decisions is elite.
It is why some of the examples used to showcase how players on the other side of 30 drop off after a mega contract – like Mesut Ozil and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang – have felt insulting to Salah and the investment he has made in himself to continue making excellence a habit.
“We know clubs are hesitant to give big contracts to older players,” Abbas told Harvard Business Study, “but Mohamed can play well into his early 40s if he wants to.”
Salah’s ideal is to continue firing Liverpool to silverware, but will they make him an offer that makes that a reality?
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