Mohamed Salah reality that could ultimately decide Liverpool contract stand-off

Mohamed Salah overtook the legendary Billy Liddell to move fourth in Liverpool's all-time scorers' list and the Reds could use this in contract talks

Mohamed Salah’s latest goalscoring milestone may have been news to some, but not the Egyptian star.

Salah will have known all about the significance of overtaking the legendary Billy Liddell in Liverpool’s all-time scoring list to sit proudly in fourth with 229 goals. Salah lives to break records and while Ian Rush’s haul of 346 at the top of the charts will be beyond him, he will have the third-placed Gordon Hodgson in his sights.

Hodgson scored 241 goals in the inter-war years and was the club’s top scorer until Roger Hunt replaced him in the 1960s. This is significant because Salah wants to write his name in indelible ink at Anfield.

He does not want to leave on a Bosman next summer when he feels he has so much more he wants to achieve at Liverpool. He would like to stay and try to overtake Hunt’s tally of 285 goals and cement his place in the pantheon of Reds legends.

This all strengthens Liverpool’s hand in contract talks over a new deal with his current agreement, worth a reported £350,000-a-week, expiring in June. Never underestimate the size of Salah’s ego and he loves starring on the Premier League and Champions League stages.

He knows he would not be under the global spotlight as much as he is right now if he left, certainly not in Saudi Arabia. He also craves the Ballon d’Or and feels he has a chance of finally lifting it this season if he can help Liverpool win either the Premier League or Champions League, or both.

There are no major championships, like the World Cup next summer, and he feels his moment could finally be coming after becoming the first Premier League player to score 10 goals and contribute 10 assists before Christmas. Salah has cleverly got the fans on his side by going public over the stalemate in talks.

Despite the impasse, Liverpool are quietly talking to his agent Ramy Abbas behind the scenes. The problem for Salah is they are not offering what he feels he is worth, both in length and money.

Liverpool do not as a policy offer deals of more than one year to players of Salah’s age and he will be 33 in June. They will want to heavily incentivise any new agreement to cover them if Salah is injured or suffers a loss of form.

It’s hard to argue with Fenway Sports Group’s logic and they have got nearly all of the big decisions over players right in last seven or eight years. OK, Georginio Wijnaldum and Sadio Mane left in successive summers because they felt the club did not offer them what they felt they were worth, but both have seen their careers nosedive away from Anfield.

FSG will only offer Salah what they feel is right in terms of their pay structure and it is naive of fans to think they are going to rip it all up for one player, especially if that one player is so keen to break a few more records.

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