“Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen nineteen and six , result happiness.
Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds ought and six, result misery”
― Charles Dickens, [David Copperfield]
Point taken, though. Having said that, our previous owners bankrupted the operation and sold all our best players and left us with marquee signings like Paul Konchesky. Knowing how FSG work they will have calculated Salah’s value down to the last Shilling. That’s why they have been successful both in terms of finance and results. As long as they keep us competitive I’m happy with that. I don’t really want to watch an oligarch’s plaything consisting of a cheated FIFA game with real players.
If Mo is out for tomorrow, the weekend (FA Cup anyway) and the international break - that should be the last opportunity to extend his contract for now.
Otherwise I’d put that on hold because the next 10 weeks are more important than anything else. Don’t need the constant talk about it and the distraction that comes with it.
He is the consummate professional. He won’t end up in the papers a la Jack Grealish. He won’t end up a degenerate and facing jail time. He won’t go off on a Neymar style party binge.
Cristiano Ronaldo was three years older at 33 when he went to Juve for 100m euros. They factored in that after his four year contract ends, nothing could be got for him (they in fact did get a little somethiong from Man Utd).
If the merry-go-round starts with Mbappe going to Real, PSG/Man City looking at Haaland, Kane sticking two fingers to Levy, Lewi, etc, then our astute team can get a more than decent price for Mo, should they wish to cash in.
I am at peace with Mo playing to his contract, help winning us in the 2022-23 season big ears and league, and then leaving as a bona fide legend.
Thing is, Salah will not go to Dortmund or Tottenham.
So we have big players moving this summer (Mbappe and Haaland almost for sure and possibly Kane, even if he has 2 years left on his deal) and actually not a lot of room.
PSG? Possibly, but I also have my doubts. Barca? Financial question. Maybe Juve if Dybala goes? Who knows.
Wherever Mo goes it will be a step down from here.
He is already a wealthy player, he can stay here and become a more wealthy player and become an Icon at this club, the likes of legends before him,
Or he can move to another club, become even wealthier but in all reality not love it there as he loves it here and just be another player at another club.
One is doing the best for the club, one is doing the best for himself.
I don’t think bad of Salah wanting to earn an even bigger bucket of cash, don’t agree with it personally as all footballers earn obscene amounts, but it is his right. But it’s not correct to say he’s putting the club over his own personal wishes, he’s not, which is what FSG are primarily doing.
I’m staggered that whilst we witness the sports washing of Chelsea, Newcastle, City etc. etc. FSG somehow by being financially prudent and using our own revenues to be self sufficient have it used as a negative against them.
I watch what is happening with Chelsea and thank our stars we aren’t popped up by an owner with unlimited funds but all the horrendous baggage. If that means we lose Salah, so be it. I’d take that every day of the week than being owned by any of the sportswashing owners.
Salah has every right to ask for whatever he thinks he should be paid. The club has every right and should hold certain financial discipline to preserve our long term survival. While I am certainly not privy to inside numbers but if Salah is current paid around 200K per week, then I would struggle to believe that the club would have insulted Salah’s importance to the club by offering him anything lesser than 300K which is a sizeable 50% increase if the former number is to be believed. Like some had said before, its not just about giving Salah what he wants, again if rumours are to be believed, and that is upwards of 400K and above, then even if they are not scoring as many as Salah, what will stop Sadio, Jota, and other first team players from coming to negotiate. If for example, we give Salah 400K, what is there to stop Sadio from asking for 300K? And Jota for 250K? Sure we can refuse them and then we risk being seen favouring certain players unfairly. I will put it this way, if we as a club, dare to hold our financial discipline in the light of our best player possibly walking away for free, this will send a message that truly, no player is bigger than the club and that is how it should be.
Salah just doesn’t have the marketing pull that Ronaldo has.
Liverpool can get a decent price for Salah but Salah knows that he can run down his contract and leave on a free and get a higher signing on fee and wage etc etc. I’m okay with anything. He stays for one more year , Things can change in that one year as well.
Also w.r.t Salah , maybe its the length of the deal which is the problem. He might be wanting a 3 year contract or more whereas liverpool might be willing to only offer a two year deal ?
That’s a strawman though. We already have one of the largest wage bills in world football and the only clubs in the conversation to pay him more than we are seemingly willing to are clubs who are artificially funded (including Real) or running themselves into the ground with their bad financial decisions.
I accept that doesn’t mean that Mo has to just take what we’re offering, but he should 1) understand why we’re likely not offering what other clubs might claim to be willing to, and 2) acknowledge what it would mean to leave to go and play for one of those teams if the money is the priority.
The Salah contract situation makes me think about Tom Brady (bear with me non-NFL fans).
Brady is undoubtably one of the greatest players of his or possibly all time. In a results driven game, he’s achieved more than anyone else. He plays the single most influential position in his or any sport. He has, quite rightly, been very well compensated throughout his career.
But, the NFL has a salary cap and every pound you pay him is a pound you can’t spend on surrounding him with better players that improve both the franchise and his potential of winning more games and more titles. The year his team most recently win the Superbowl he’s something like the 17th best paid player in the league and the 14th best paid at his position. He made roughly 55-65% of what the top earning players in his position made. But it meant they could surround him with a great supporting cast.
Now we don’t have a salary cap but we do have a finite of money to go round. Every pound you pay Salah is a pound you can’t pay someone else that helps make the team/squad better. At what point does the balance tip between your own interests and the potential success of the team? The £100k a week difference between £300k a week and £400k a week is potentially the difference between being able to afford the wages of a good centre mid or someone like Thiago.
There’s a number somewhere where it just doesn’t become palatable anymore from a team building perspective and it sounds like what Mo is after is simply beyond that.
Brady has long accepted a reduction in salary in the interest of spreading that money further among the squad. It’s an admirable approach, but his marital status, married to someone with a net worth way in excess of what he could ever hope to achieve from simply playing football, did change the calculus for him on what money represents relative to other players whose earning potential can be wiped out with 1 hit.
A bit point missed on these negotiations is that Salah owns his own image rights, I’m sure someone like Kopstar can explain better than me, but I believe that is worth around £100k a week to Salah. So anything we offer has that on top of it… Whereas we control the image rights a lot of the other players in the team.
I’m not saying this just to be contrarian, but 50m for a 30 year old on the last year of his contract would not be that bad of a deal. Although I’m pretty sure canny FSG could extract a pound of flesh and associated blood from the dolts at Barca.
Please don’t compare the situation to Mbappe’s or Grealish’s which were very different.
