Newsnow Liverpool bring you the latest Liverpool news as Paul Gorst explains why Mohamed Salah shouldn’t think about moving to Saudi Arabia.
What Has Paul Gorst Said About Mohamed Salah Liverpool Future?
According to Paul Gorst, FSG may need to seriously consider a fundamental question regarding Mohamed Salah‘s future at Liverpool.
The appearance of a certain Mohamed Salah was perhaps the highlight of the LASK fans’ on Thursday night, if that statement doesn’t seem too haughty or condescending.
Few inside the Raiffeisen Arena disputed who the star attraction was when Liverpool superstar Salah emerged from the substitutes’ bench after 74 minutes of play, though the celebration of a superb Florian Flecker goal to open the scoring in the Reds’ 3-1 victory may be debatable.
In the Austrian city of Linz, the Egyptian entered the match to a hero’s welcome from both sets of supporters before he produced the type of eye-catching, game-sealing cameo that has been his trademark for the Reds.
Late in the game, he outran Flecker and Andres Andrade’s challenges before slipping the ball past the goalkeeper at his near post with an impudent nutmeg thanks to a deft finish.
Salah has reportedly taken over as Liverpool’s primary playmaker this season. He has four assists and was denied a fifth versus Wolves due to a rule infraction, but he still ranks as the team’s top goalscorer.
Only Luis Diaz and Darwin Nunez have the same amount of goals, three each, in the early weeks of the season. Salah’s influence and enduring brilliance will be crucial this season, especially for a younger forward line hoping to emulate the No. 11 at Anfield.
Since the beginning of last season, beginning with the Community Shield victory over Manchester City, the 31-year-old has contributed to 53 goals (20 assists and 33 goals), and he has now either assisted or scored in each of his last 12 games.
It is difficult to add anything new to what has already been said about the club’s all-time leading scorer in European and Premier League football during a decorated six-year stint to date, but what comes next for the team and the player will be fascinating. He is still without a doubt the main man at Anfield, possibly now more than ever.
Is he the best player in the world of football right now? Jordan Henderson, a former captain of Liverpool, made this argument earlier this week, and there is plenty of support for it at the moment. But even if Al-Ettifaq’s Henderson was only praising a friend and former coworker’s abilities and showing his love for them, it discreetly brought the Saudi Arabia question back into focus.
Salah’s next move has been widely speculated about ever since Fenway Sports Group president Mike Gordon vehemently rejected an offer of up to £150 million from Al-Ittihad on the final day of the transfer window.
The captain of Egypt is expected to eventually return to the Middle East as the main attraction of the ambitious and obscenely successful Saudi Pro League. Rarely is the overall quality of the football itself taken into consideration in the discussion. According to the notion, the money will be sufficient to seal it.
Despite the significant cash compensation, the key question around it all is still, “Why exactly?”
Salah may find the opportunity to represent the Saudi Pro League appealing because he is arguably the biggest Muslim athlete on the planet, but only he can judge how much that appeal will actually outweigh the chance to play for and potentially win the biggest football prizes with Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool.
Salah and Liverpool fans will be content to put this possibility on hold for the time being, but with just under two years left on the biggest contract ever signed on Merseyside, at about £350,000 per week, does FSG see any point in holding the loosest of Boston boardroom discussions about an extension?
While the most recent agreement, which was signed on the Greek island of Mykonos in late June of last year, was the result of months of difficult and intense negotiations between the club and Salah’s agent Ramy Abbas, might an agreement to continue the wildly successful partnership further be easier to solve this time?
Salah is obviously not slowing down, and his extreme commitment to his craft will ensure that he is able to continue to shine well into his mid- to late-30s, much like Lionel Messi (36) and Cristiano Ronaldo (38), two players who have only recently retired from the forefront of elite European football.
Football appears to be booming in Saudi Arabia, but the general public isn’t benefiting from it. This season, the league-wide average attendance is close to 10,000. Only one of the 18 clubs has average attendance greater than 25,000, or less than 50% of Anfield. Moving to the Middle East cannot be on Salah’s agenda if he wants to keep breaking records at the highest level.
Salah’s surroundings will be more opulent than LASK’s Raiffeisen Arena for the balance of his time at Liverpool. But if he transfers to the Saudi Pro League, he won’t quite be able to make that assertion.