James Pearce cites three factors which could be crucial in Liverpool’s Mo Salah negotiations | OneFootball

A reliable journalist has indicated that there’s a mutual desire between Mo Salah and Liverpool for the player to extend his contract at Anfield, although his future could rest on three key factors in the negotiations.

The Egyptian has less than eight months remaining on his current £350,000-per-week deal, by the end of which he’ll have turned 33, and he’s just seven weeks away from being permitted to speak to club outside England about a possible pre-contract agreement.

The ongoing discourse about his future certainly hasn’t hindered his peformances on the pitch, with 10 goals and assists each in just 17 games this season.

Salah keen to stay at Liverpool

In a Liverpool mailbag for The Athletic, James Pearce wrote that both Salah and the club are keen to strike an agreement on a new deal, but it might require a degree of ‘compromise’ between the relevant parties for that to materialise.

The journalist wrote: “Liverpool want to keep Salah and the player is keen on staying put. It comes down to whether both parties can agree a compromise in terms of the basic salary, the bonus structure and the length of the contract.

“I wrote after his match-winning contribution against Aston Villa last weekend that I thought a two-year extension on similar terms to his current contract would make sense. That would take him up to his 35th birthday in 2027.

“Physically, Salah is a machine and his output is remarkable, but if he wanted a significant pay rise or longer than an extra two years, then that’s a real dilemma. He can’t defy Father Time forever.”

(Photo by Shaun Botterill/Getty Images)

Let’s hope Salah and Liverpool can meet in the middle

From a purely business point of view, it mightn’t seem the most sensible approach to continue paying vast wages for several more years to a player who’s already into the latter part of their career, but Salah has long since proven worthy of being treated as an exceptional case.

It’s one thing to have a phenomenal goalscoring record for Liverpool (221 in 366 games); it’s another to still be finding the net consistently – he’s scored in eight of his 11 Premier League matches this season and also have five goal contributions in four Champions League outings (Transfermarkt).

Even though the Egyptian is by far the highest earner at Anfield, the Reds should be in sufficiently rude health financially to pay him a wage befitting of his performance levels for two more years after this campaign; or if he wants to stay longer, the club could consider a minor wage reduction in favour of longevity.

It could require some give-and-take between Salah and LFC to reach a mutually desirable contract, but if both parties are keen to make it happen, ideally there shouldn’t be a problem with compromising to some degree.

What absolutely needs to be aboided is for one of Liverpool’s greatest-ever players to disappear out the back door on a free transfer just because of stubbornness from him or the club over a contractual detail.