It is so hard with Mo as I have said previously he has had a few seasons where he has dropped off after the heavy Christmas period and looking at his age you can understand the club being reticent about offering him a new contract at the same or even higher wages than he is currently on.
You cannot fault his stats and what he offers but age is a determining factor in performance levels.
Would love to keep him on our terms
100m for ronaldo and wasted Dybala. Dybala from his best to his worst season with Ronaldo in their line up 
Is there a real comparison between the two though?
Or are you and others just searching for an answer?
None of us know where this ends up, so searching for comparitors is natural.
I donāt think Salah has a comparison at the moment though.
I think the issue here is that most people here would prefer to hold on too long rather than too short.
I would like Mo and VVD to sign on for another 2 seasons, but make no mistakeā¦ it will be costly (Mo especially). This notion of losing him for nothing, while technically true, doesnāt reflect the pound of flesh he is going to extract from whoever signs him.
It is probably also an unpopular opinion but for me, I wonāt fault the club for choosing to start the rebuilding earlier (if the demands are too much). It will have to be done sooner rather than later and there is some sense on the sooner.
A) Holding too long often means a poor season (e.g., Hendersonās and Fabinhoās last)
B) Having such stalwarts in the squad limits the pool of candidates (e.g., a young up and coming or ready-made candidate would waste their skills on the bench if they only played irregularly)
C) Often a drastic short-term change in the squad is more effective than a gradual change of key playersā¦ dragging things out could affect multiple seasons.
Still hope they sign on and stayā¦ but there will be personnel challenges regardless of what happens.
Agreed, especially if he can help win us a PL before he goes.
With the Saudi league an option at some future pointā¦ MO will have a value to them, even if it is 3yrs down the line. Giving him a 3yr contract now; and sell him on within this period; it would retain his services and retain some monetary value - However, at some juncture, whether sooner or later, AS will have to leave him out of the starting 11 if/when his form drops off a cliff at any stageā¦ Not sure MO is of the personality now, to have to take a back seat to proceedingsā¦
Giving MO a lucrative contract is recoverable at the point he is sold, NOT giving others a similar lucrative contract might lead to problems within the squad.
To whom? Salah? I think if he had any intention to do that he would have done so last summer. He could have left us at any point for a team that pays more, that is more likely to win trophies, but he hasnāt shown much of an interest in doing so.
Let alone going to some backwater.
Agreed, devil if you do and the devil if you donāt
The point I was making is the the Saudi league have the means to pay good money for MO, now or further down the line to LFC. At the moment, it looks like MO is enjoying his football, in a proper footballing environment, along with the camaraderie it brings with itā¦ He will also know the Saudi links will bring him good money at some point, if he chooses to semi-retire over there (Re Ronaldo)ā¦ so he probably doesnāt need to prioritise his income right now.
If LFC have him tied to a contract, that contract will hold its value to some, no matter how MO performs on the stage in the UK -
Except he doesnāt necessarily want to go there?
Everything heās said and done points to me that he wants to go out at the top, retiring with us rather than go to some shithole somewhere like the Bernabeu or the Saudi Arabian League. If thatās the case, then itās not surprising that he might value this contract, since it might well be the final contract he has.
Good point, and makes sense if he is of that mindset now 
One thing is for certain in all this, glad it has not fell upon my shoulders to make the right call :0)
Damn straight, itās easy for us fans to comment and talk about, but to actually have to do thatā¦
Heās still a brilliant footballer no question but thereās also no question (in my mind) that heās simply less involved in games than he used to be. Would be interesting to see his distance covered stats for the last 5 years, I suspect theyāre declining. Yes heās lethal when he gets a chance and unmatched from the spot. But thereās a quote from a rather famous manager about letting a player lose their legs for another team.
However he must not go until we have his replacement AND a striker of world class calibre. We canāt sign a RW whoāll get his goals (because rocking horse shit is more common) so we need a striker who will. Jota is made of glass and we all love Darwin butā¦ā¦
Im all for him being less involved if he continues to be involved in scoring 2/3s of our goals like he is so far this season! He doesnāt need to be like he was 5 years ago.
I know its a different league but Messi strolls round the French and US leagues and is still banging in goals. As you get older its all about picking your moments and letting the younger lot do the running and wearing down of defenders.
Look at Nunez - full of running but will never hit the numbers Salah has - even as a No 9 - Salahs done all this from the right.
Who do we replace Salah with? Ben Doak?
Salah output is crazy, no doubt, but football doesnāt work like that. Haaland scored 60% of Cityās goals last two seasons, everyone around him suddenly looks like they donāt know how to score goals, which clearly isnāt true. Haaland or Salah is the focus point of the team and deserves it, but itās not like he single-handedly did everything. Heās not.
I donāt think that anyone says that Salah does everything. But heās still a world-class player and a big asset to our team.
If this is to be Moāsā¦Trentās + whoever elseās last season then it gives Arne room to build a team that further reflects his philosophy, probably sooner than heād have realised, and itāll be thought provoking to see how he re-shapes the team, especially the forward line from a creative and goal scoring perspective.
Since Maneās departure, the last few seasons the team has primarily been designed to cater to Salahās strengths - giving him the license to keep isolated high up in space. Time will tell if we continue down this path, using the data sheet to find a player that could look to model Salahās game.
The best analogy I have of this is the English cricket team. They tried to replace Botham (as we needed a world class allrounder) and spent years failing because that player didnāt exist. We then did the same with Freddy, again, the player didnāt exist. We canāt get hung up on replacing the player Salah is, we need to evolve if he leaves.
Itās a dilemma.
If we win the leagueā¦ we will be even more attractive to a wider pool of players (there are always many who are swayed by the greater chance at trophies).
But then do you want to break up a winner that could maybe go at it again for another season? It could be the perfect chance to addā¦ relative to 2 to 3 years further down the road after a disappointing campaign that is inevitable if we donāt replace our aging players. But it could also jeopardise chances at another strong run.
Itās a dilemma but change and rebuilding is inevitable. We canāt just pretend that it wonāt happen and kick the bucket down the road (well we can, but the results might not be good).
