I don’t think Bobby’s contract status is that much of a concern for Liverpool. As great as a footballer that he is , He is not a good fit for most other clubs. The only real footballer comparable to him is Thomas Muller with the role he does for Germany and Bayern Munich
I’d expect Bobby to sign reasonable terms given that he’s not going to get better opportunities elsewhere and we still really do need him as a Plan B now even if Jota is a Plan A
You have to factor in wages. If Salah gets a big deal Mane will want one too, and paying both of those would leave us with two players in their thirties on huge wages and no money to buy replacements.
That’s the kind of policy that’s led to disaster for other clubs.
Yeah only need to see how Arsenal giving Ozil / Auba huge contracts have crippled them.
Some mega ones have come in over the years though under FSG - Virgil, Studge, Coutinho, Suarez, Stephen Caulker…
Great Pod on TAW wrap yesterday with Stephen Warnock saying that the amount of clubs that offer big deals to over 30s and then the players fall off a cliff.
I dont think Salah would but Mane and Bobby might.
FFS I was 100% certain we would bring no one in this window. Made peace with that in the beginning of December already. Now I almost struggle to get excited about it 
When the first rumours on Diaz surfaced I was sure they are BS so did not really pay attention to it.
So now … IT’S HAPPENING
We’ve seen Mane having a dip for quite a while now. Salah on the other hand seems to be improving with age. Bobby’s playing style won’t make him drastically peter off though. Mane on the other hand like i mentioned before is having a dip.
I guess it has to do with the their body type as well. With the level of fitness increasing , we just might have come to the 32 being the new 30. There are always footballers around who’ve played to a very high level in their 30’s as well.
There are players who’ve fizzled out like Auba and there are players who’ve continued playing well like Vardy. But the majority have almost always not worked well into their 30’s and that’s being seen more with forwards
Sure the books need to be balanced, but there are are a lot of factors involved in that. Also massive assumption that we would need to pay Mane the same as Salah to keep him, he hasn’t got Salah’s numbers to back up that stance. I have faith that something can be worked out at the negotiating table. And from a fan’s perspective, I always want us to keep our best players and have the depth to compete at the top level.
I might be remembering wrong, but I thought I saw that his underlying stats weren’t any different it’s just that his final ball stats tend to be more streaky than Salah’s. Salah is ridiculously consistent for any top striker, so anyone else would pale in comparison naturally.
Liked the look of him in the Champions League against us. I’ve seen a few highlights of his this season for Porto and he looks mustard.
For the reported fee there’s not any better we could have hoped for.
Has the potential to be another 10/10 signing this.
It might be the fact that Salah has become so consistent that Mane is often unfairly compared to him. It’s not fair to Sadio but that’s what it is… Any improvement that Sadio has made pales into comparision when Mo’s being the guy compared with
I’ve been completely blindsided by this having gotten used to us being very frugal in the transfer market, especially in January.
I don’t think we have - his figures this season are as far as I am aware pretty much up there with most of his other seasons with us. What we have seen though is a narrative from people that he has been having this dip, so it has become accepted as fact.
One thing worries me that most of our best signings have had a level of “why him” or “he’s not worth that much” or “we should have bought this guy instead” reactions. This universal approval has me worried.
We’re still being frugal, even if the deal goes ahead!
As i mentioned before , He’s in a position where it’s inevitable that comparisons with Mo come about. And Salah being on another planet for his liverpool career often makes people perceive that Mane hasn’t improved as much or is in a dip.
Just read this bit from a Spurs fan in agony:
“Louis Saha and Ryan Nelson incoming.”
No one wanted any other defender when we got VVD. No one really wanted any other keeper when we got Alli (albiet any other keeper would still have been a major improvement over Karius , but still)
I never get blown away by new players who come from clubs we’ve blown away. But there was that Alisson fellah. I hope Spurs don’t do a crazy counter bid now, we get cold feet and Diaz turns toward London’s lifestyle advantages.