Major Mo Salah Liverpool contract update emerges as close friend reveals star’s ‘clear’ intentions

Former Liverpool goalkeeper Adrian has given the club cause for major optimism that Mo Salah will sign an extension to his contract – while Arne Slot has also given his feelings on the situation and explained why he is not concerned about the Egyptian or Virgil van Dijk.

The talismanic Reds attacker, like his teammates Van Dijk and Trent Alexander-Arnold, falls out of contract at Liverpool at the end of the current season, meaning that in just over three and a half months, all three players will be eligible to sign pre-contract agreements to move overseas.

Liverpool, of course, would love all three players to stay, and with talks due to take place over new contracts with the trio over the coming weeks, everyone associated with the club knows how vital they are to their trophy prospects.

Salah raised serious concerns over his comments a fortnight ago by stating he’s in his “last year” at Anfield. However, the  214-goal Reds attacker’s comments – clever as they were by causing some panic – were merely stating the obvious: that he is indeed in the final 12 months of his current arrangement at Anfield.

However, despite suggestions the mega-money on offer in Saudi Arabia could entice the player away, his former Reds teammate Adrian has now come out and revealed why he believes there is no need for concern over his Liverpool future.

“I don’t really know [about Saudi interest], this is a question for Mohamed Salah but obviously the reports and rumours were there, the news and the newspapers said so, but I saw that he was happy at the club,” Adrian told Egyptian publication WinWin.

“Obviously that happened last year when we were together, and we talked about it, but it was clear that he wanted to stay at the club. As I said, he is now in the last year of his contract with the club, I don’t know if they have already started talking to him about renewing the contract or opening the way for him to leave the club, but I can’t see Mohamed Salah currently outside Liverpool.”

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Mo Salah future: Arne Slot remains unfazed by situation

Adrian continued: “He will decide in the end, it is a personal and family decision for him, and I wish him all the best, and whatever he decides will be the best option. Honestly, I was joking a little, but if Mohamed Salah wants to join Real Betis, the door is already open for him!

“It’s his final year on his contract with Liverpool, I know the group there loves him, the fans love him, he loves the group and the city, the experience he had at Liverpool is huge.

“I can’t see Mohamed Salah playing for another team in the Premier League, so obviously if he has the opportunity to renew at Liverpool, the best chance and the best option is to stay at the club and continue as one of the most experienced players in the dressing room.

“I hope Mohamed Salah will perform great this season, and be a focus at Liverpool. He has got what he deserved to be honest, because he is one of the most professional players to share the dressing room with, he is the first to arrive at training and the last to leave.

Summing up his situation, Adrian concluded: “Mo deserves the statistics and numbers he has achieved, he is one of the best players in the world, one of the best wingers, one of the best goal-scoring players, one of the best goal-makers, all the players have ups and downs but I think that Mohamed Salah staying at this level for many years is a great thing.”

Reds boss Slot, meanwhile, remains far from concerned over the situation surrounding both Salah and Van Dijk, with the towering defender already making clear his intentions to stay.

“For me it is not that important what they say in the media about whether they like it or buy in or not, it is important how they play” Slot told the Liverpool Echo. Both of them have shown – Mo even longer as he had a full pre-season and Virgil from when he came back – some really strong performances.

On how his relationship with the pair compares to Jurgen Klopp, he added: “This was such a long time, so successful, you can’t expect that in four weeks you have the same relationship as Jurgen had in nine years. But then it is all up to work together, get to know each other and try to get performances in.

“If that happens, your relationship with every player will grow. I have no doubt their relationship with Jurgen is stronger because they had so long together. But it is up to us to create the same relationship, we started quite well but there is a lot to prove.”

Slot on Kelleher as Man Utd snub emerges

Salah’s agent, meanwhile, has weighed into the argument on the winger’s future with a robost 41-word statement on the player.

“FYI (for your information) – all those ‘journalists’ who imply having ‘inside information’ about Mohamed’s future are making claims/posts based on absolutely nothing,” his agent Ramy Abass Issa wrote on X. “Just click-whoring.

“‘Sources close to Mohamed’ don’t exist. This post is really just to tell you that they don’t know.”

Meanwhile, Slot has opened up on Caiomhim Kelleher’s comments this week that revealed he was upset at failing to secure a summer move away and at the subsequent signing of Giorgi Mamardashvili.

“I would be really worried if a player came out and said, ‘I don’t care about playing first-team football, I like it so much on the bench and want to stay there for the rest of my life’”, Slot told reporters.

“That would be a bigger worry for me. It is normal they want to play but also normal that a club as big as this – trying to compete for trophies – has more than 11 players that can play.”

Elsewhere, a report in the Dutch media has claimed Liverpool pulled the plug on a possible summer move for Matthijs de Ligt over hostility that exists between the now-Manchester United defender and Van Dijk.

Salah still worth every penny of Liverpool wages

He may now be 32 – an age seen by some players as in the latter stages of their playing careers – but the numbers Salah continues to put up for Liverpool illustrate he is a player very much still at the top of his game.

Since arriving from Roma for £36.9m in summer 2017, his wages have grown rapidly over the course of three deals he has agreed.

But then when that is weighed up again his goals-to-game figures, it is easy to see why he does command the salary that he does.

As it stands, Salah is the club’s record earner, taking home £350,000 a week on the three-year deal he signed back in summer 2022.

But given the way he looks after himself – Jamie Carragher recently claimed he can see the Egyptian playing at the very top until he is in his late thirties or even forty – versus the goals and assists he is still producing, it is easy to see why his new deal could even better his existing arrangement.

Having started the season with three goals and three assists from his three matches so far, Salah remains one of the greatest goalscorers in Liverpool’s history.

Currently fifth on their all-time list with 214, a fit Salah will have his sights set on Billy Liddell’s 228 tally and may even hope to pull into the top three before long with Gordon Hodgson sat there on 241.

Beyond that, Roger Hunt scored 285 – meaning Salah would need an extension to surpass that figure, while the great Ian Rush sits well clear, having scored an outstanding 346 goals for the Reds.

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