Mohamed SALAH: 2021/22

[Worgan]

Mo plays virtually every game. Hardly gets injured. Plays the full 90 minutes too. All under a Klopp system that takes no passengers and is highly demanding.

We’ve seen with Gini that it’s hard to replace these sorts of hardened players. Add to the mix that Mo is probably the best footballer on the planet at the moment, then allowances can and should be made (as long as it’s not Barcelona levels of ridiculousness).

As others have said, if Mo doesn’t sign, I’d prefer he be allowed to play out his contract (unless there’s a can’t refuse offer).

I don’t want any repeat of the Andy “pay Newcastle 15m less than what we get for Torres” Caroll type of deal to appease the fans.

[AnfieldRdDreamer]

I think he will sign, hope everything is agreed in principle and it’s just the fine details being worked out.

Otherwise I really am not sure what message we want to send?

We are one of the best teams on the planet but any of our players who get to a certain level will need to move elsewhere to get reflective salaries!

Obviously we don’t and shouldn’t go too far, Messi was on ridiculous money that was holding Barca back, but I’ve a feeling a humble guy like Mo referring to his requests as “not crazy” that we aren’t in that territory yet.

Putting him on high wages sends the message that Liverpool can REALLY be a destination club. There are zero reasons to go elsewhere. Here you can play the best football, under the best manager, improve from the best coaching, play with the best players, challenge for the top honours and get paid the top wages if you earn them. Because we ARE an ambitious club and want to be at the top of the sport with the best players in the world in our squad.

[Dutch]

Ah, the old BS if they would have played with 11 we would have won excuse. The truth is that we need Salah and the depth of our squad is not deep enough.

Carry on …

[deneb]

You do realise even if he had signed a new contract already that he wouldn’t have been playing last night anyway?

[AnfieldRdDreamer]

@deneb

You do realise even if he had signed a new contract already that he wouldn’t have been playing last night anyway?

@Dutch

and the depth of our squad is not deep enough.

Why ask a question to someone who had already provided the answer?

[Nikola]

Folks, another polite reminder to keep things civil here. This is not Blue Moon or Red Cafe or whatever.

[Zoran]

We also have to see how it’s structured and the length of it.

Our total wage bill is among the top ones; City, Chelsea, us and then United. All more or less at the same figure. But the beauty at our place was that there was/harmony, because there weren’t huge differences.

Maybe there could be a question asked to FSG if they are willing to slightly alter their boundaries in order to give us a better chance of remaining at the top? Up for discussion, but I also say that of the opinion that I completely understand we can’t give anyone every or everyone everything we can offer. Salah though, should be clearly more important than someone like Gini (if there wasn’t Hendo, then he’d probably get more or less what he wanted).

I think there’s also the fact that we as fans and, more importantly, people making decisions at the club, are not used to how the process going from: a top Liverpool side to a new top Liverpool side looks like.

That’s a test for all of us. This happens even at richer/more serial winners clubs, let alone here with us, working under certain “rules” with these owners, players coming into their 30’s (no, I don’t want to say that Salah wouldn’t be able to keep this up for 2/3 more years inside his new potential contract).

I’m also very surprised at the lack of questions from journalists about Mane and Firmino. I understand that Salah is a more interesting topic, but they can ask also about the other two. Regardless of form.

As for Salah, where would he go next? Not like there are 10 teams who can do that and who can attract him. Maybe his entourage expected more smoke from other clubs, realized that so far there isn’t much and are willing to mlik as much as possible from LFC.

It’s just business and negotiations. Us being with Klopp for a few years and winning 4 trophies inside a calendar year of the 6-7 so far doesn’t mean that we will completely avoid certain “sagas”. There will still be a certain Owen, Gerrard, Torres, Suarez, Coutinho situation. Less, but it will still be there from time to time. And especially in a period when we are starting to change the team. There will be some unpopular moves.

For me, as long as Salah keeps playing the best he can (which I firmly believe he will), I have no issues. I didn’t have issues with Emre, I didn’t have issues with Gini. They all gave their personal best while they were here.

I guess we’ll find out much more until next summer. For now still, I’m still calm. I still think we will come to an agreement.

[AnfieldRdDreamer]

On wages we pay a lot but it’s in a really healthy zone as a percentage of revenue, there’s room to play around.

(Sorry using images from @SwissRamble on Twitter that came from his West Ham update as he compares against last known for other teams.)

[redalways]

And how many of that in our last 3 games before he left? Just 1. He was as bad as anyone else on the team, and this whole myth that we can solve our current woes by just one magic player dropping in the team needs to die. Jürgen Klopp teams aren’t about single God-like players, they’re about a team that’s more than the sum of its parts.

We would ideally sign him to a new contract, but your whole reasoning is flawed. We’d probably still struggle to score even if he was on the pitch last night.

[AnfieldRdDreamer]

@redalways

And how many of that in our last 3 games before he left? Just 1. He was as bad as anyone else on the team, and this whole myth that we can solve our current woes by just one magic player dropping in the team needs to die. Jürgen Klopp teams aren’t about single God-like players, they’re about a team that’s more than the sum of its parts.

We would ideally sign him to a new contract, but your whole reasoning is flawed. We’d probably still struggle to score even if he was on the pitch last night.

That’s still 25% of what 11 men on the pitch scored during those games. Notice you specifically chose 3 games in an attempt to look as bad as possible as he had 7 goal contributions in the 6 league games immediately before that

The team is more than the sum of its parts, things have been put together to make an exceptionally good whole. But by that logic if you take a major building block out of that whole and replace it with a completely different and lesser block suddenly it doesn’t look so good.

Nobody is saying Salah is the only reason we win or anything, but without him and with no other changes this side would struggle to replicate what it does without him.

When he does move on (which is hopefully around mid 30s when I think he’ll eventually start slowing down) we will successfully rebuild I hope and expect. But it’ll be a rebuild and it might not go smoothly for a year or so. Much better to gradually evolve the side around Salah over a 3/4 year period so its not as reliant on him so when that piece of the puzzle is swapped for a new one it’s not as jarring and runs smoother.

[Iftikhar]

@AnfieldRdDreamer

there’s room to play around.

Is there? Players’ wages aren’t the only expenses.

[AnfieldRdDreamer]

@Iftikhar

Is there? Players’ wages aren’t the only expenses.

You’re right they aren’t but there’s still room to increase the wage bill and keep it within a reasonable level. The revenue for that accounting period was lower because of project restart but the wage bill was still only 66% in a year bonuses would have been high because of performances.

[redalways]

@AnfieldRdDreamer

Notice you specifically chose 3 games in an attempt to look as bad as possible as he had 7 goal contributions in the 6 league games immediately before that

No, I specifically chose 3 games as the 3 games in which we were struggling.

Even Jürgen said that Mané and Salah wouldn’t have made much of a difference last night.

[Iftikhar]

@AnfieldRdDreamer

@Iftikhar

Is there? Players’ wages aren’t the only expenses.

You’re right they aren’t but there’s still room to increase the wage bill and keep it within a reasonable level. The revenue for that accounting period was lower because of project restart but the wage bill was still only 66% in a year bonuses would have been high because of performances.

How much is our other expenses?

[AnfieldRdDreamer]

@redalways

No, I specifically chose 3 games as the 3 games in which we were struggling.

Even Jürgen said that Mané and Salah wouldn’t have made much of a difference last night.

What’s he supposed to say after the first of a few games without them? “Well without Salah and Mane our chances of scoring and winning are severely dented as the players I’ll have to rely on just don’t measure up!”? That’s an interesting motivation tactic.

[AnfieldRdDreamer]

@Iftikhar

How much is our other expenses?

Not as bad as believed. Yet again with some revenue (estimated to be about £35m) delayed to the next set of accounts due in the next couple of months.

[redfanman]

@AnfieldRdDreamer

You’re right they aren’t but there’s still room to increase the wage bill and keep it within a reasonable level. The revenue for that accounting period was lower because of project restart but the wage bill was still only 66% in a year bonuses would have been high because of performances.

The club work to a ratio around 58-62%. So 66% is higher than their preferred figure. This is in part due to Covid though.

The club can probably afford to pay what Mo is asking for - but it will decided against what the club expect to earn in future years, and with other spending needs.

[redfanman]

@AnfieldRdDreamer

Not as bad as believed. Yet again with some revenue (estimated to be about £35m) delayed to the next set of accounts due in the next couple of months.

That chart isn’t of expenses.

EBITDA is sometimes used as a proxy for cash flow or cash profits but is also known as ‘bullshit earnings’ because it can ignore a lot of the costs that are necessary for a business to stay competitive or to grow.

[redalways]

Or maybe, just for once, he’s telling the truth? Why can’t you accept that we were struggling before, even with Salah, and that it might just be the team not working our routines properly?

[Dutch]

Sorry