Fabrizio Romano delivers big Mo Salah Liverpool contract update as pundit claims wage demands have ‘rocked the boat’

Liverpool will soon open new contract talks with Mo Salah and his agent, Ramy Abbas, and there remains a strong confidence a new deal can be agreed, despite Troy Deeney claiming how the player’s wage demands have ‘rocked the boat’ at Anfield.

The Egyptian star is widely regarded as the Reds’ most important and influential player, having scored a breathtaking 214 goals and added 92 assists in just 352 appearances for Liverpool – giving him a goal contribution every 1.15 times he has taken the field for the Merseysiders. Yet with his contract at Anfield due to expire at the end of the season, Liverpool face an anxious wait to see if that relationship can extend beyond the seven and a bit seasons he has already enjoyed.

However, with many observers suggesting Salah is happy at Anfield, transfer expert Fabrizio Romano has now delivered a big update on the player’s future, claiming there is optimism at Anfield that a new deal can be agreed.

“We can confirm what I keep saying since the game [vs Manchester United], because it was panic for Liverpool fans after that fantastic performance at Old Trafford,” Romano said on the Here We Go podcast.

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“But then after the game, Mo Salah with those words sent the fans into a kind of panic for his future. What I can say is that conversations are set to take place soon between Mo Salah, his agent (Ramy Abbas) and Liverpool.

“There will be conversations, there will be talks. Let them work. In the sense that Liverpool have to discuss with Mo Salah, Trent Alexander-Arnold, and the same will happen with Virgil van Dijk. Talks will follow to understand the futures of these players, including Mo Salah.

“As of today, it’s not over at all between Salah and Liverpool. Talks will follow and we will see how these discussions will go on project, contract, length of the contract and also, obviously, money.”

How much will Salah’s new wages demands be worth?

Salah has started the new season like a train, with three goals and three assists in Arne Slot’s first three matches in charge. Against Manchester United, as the Reds strolled to a deserved 3-0 win, Salah was virtually unplayable, forcing even Roy Keane into an awkward admission afterwards.

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Yet after the game at Old Trafford, Salah sent Liverpool fans into something of a wild panic with a “as you know this is my last year” comment during a live television into with Sky Sports.

Since those comments were made, it’s been suggested by the likes of Daniel Sturridge and Jamie Carragher that, while the player is happy, it’s a warning to club chiefs that he will not be short of takers if his contract at Anfield does indeed wind down.

Currently earning a hefty £350,000 a week, the player knows he could see his pay packet exceed his wildest dreams were he to move to Saudi Arabia, where Al-Ittihad have made no secret of their desire to sign the 32-year-old.

To that end, wages in excess of the £1.3m a week collected by Cristiano Ronaldo have been bandied about.

However, while money is not everything to Salah – and still competing at the highest end of world football remains the big factor – Liverpool know they will have to at least match his current package to ensure the player remains on Anfield.

Nonetheless, the player has also hinted he remains happy and keen to stay, telling the Premier League’s YouTube channel of contract talks: “We’ve had a few conversations, I think so far the team is playing good which is the most important thing – myself also playing well.

“We just need to carry and try to win a big trophy this season.”

Deeney claims wage demands have ‘rocked the boat’ at Anfield

Whatever salary Liverpool do fork out for Salah, pundit Troy Deeney believes the last salary packet that the Egyptian negotiated changed the face of all other negotiations at Anfield, with other players wanting bigger wages off the back of Salah’s hike.

To that end, it will likely need a similarly hefty wage to keep Alexander-Arnold from Real Madrid’s clutches, while Van Dijk is also up for renewal talks as his £220,000 a week deal also nears its conclusion.

Discussing how Salah’s wages ‘rocked the boat’ at Anfield, Deeney told talkSPORT: “There was talk in football that [Salah’s] extension rocked the boat a little bit, because it was so far above everybody else that it kind of made Liverpool go hold on – everybody else came to the forefront like ‘where’s my money?’.”

And of their three stars due to fall out of contract next summer, Deeney has suggested Alexander-Arnold would be the easiest of the three to replace.

“Van Dijk is not getting any younger, but I think, and this is going to sound really harsh, but in order of priority I would have gone, Salah first, Van Dijk second then Trent,” he explained. “What I mean by that is you are going to need at least two players to recreate what Salah gives you, goals and assists-wise.

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“Centre-back – every centre-back they have got apart from Van Dijk is a number two. It’s very difficult to go out and find, as Man United are finding, to find that number one centre-back. I think of the three, he (Alexander-Arnold) is the easier one to replace.”

The concern for Liverpool over Alexander-Arnold is that interest in his services from Real is extremely well documented and TEAMtalk understands the 25-year-old is very much a free-transfer target for them in 2025.

And Spanish daily Sport claimed on Monday that initial talks between Alexander-Arnold and the club have seen the player ‘refuse’ the Reds’ initial offer.

Salah stats proves Liverpool simply must keep him at Anfield

If Salah extends his stay at Liverpool, it would be his third contract renewal since signing for the club, each one richly deserved.

At first, after becoming Liverpool’s record signing, he accepted a salary worth £120,000 per week. Instantly, he proved to be exceptional value for money both in terms of transfer fee and salary, as he scored 44 goals from 52 games in his debut season.

It earned him an improved contract worth £200,000 per week, over the course of which he maintained his sharp form in front of goal, never failing to score fewer than 20 times in a season.

As the final year of that renewed deal approached, Salah signed the most lucrative contract in Liverpool’s history in 2022 to commit his future to the club until the end of the 2024/25 season, now earning £350,000 per week.

A 30-goal haul was followed up by another campaign in which he scored 25, and Salah has a record of three in three so far this season, showing just how important he remains to Liverpool.