Neil Jones reckons clubs in Saudi Arabia will ‘come knocking’ for Mo Salah next summer and believes Liverpool will have to consider the Egyptian’s contract situation sooner rather than later.
Just last summer there was uncertainty surrounding the forward’s Reds future before he signed a new deal which will keep him at Anfield until the summer of 2025.
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With the Saudi Pro League raiding Europe for some of the games’ biggest talents this summer Jones believes it won’t be long before our No. 11, who Jurgen Klopp described as ‘special’ last season (as quoted by the Guardian), is on their radar.
“Where Saudi Arabia is concerned, I wouldn’t rubber-stamp anything! There’s so much going on and we’ve seen it’s just been player after player after player this summer,” Jones told Empire of the Kop. “Otavio’s the latest one, despite links with Liverpool a while back. You look at Aymeric Laporte… Everything is up in the air with Saudi.
“Salah will have a year left on his contract next summer and you know what happened last time this was the case and the stories that emerged around that. I know it really got to the stage where even people at Liverpool were thinking it was going the wrong way for them and Salah could leave. There’s definitely a chance he leaves next summer if nothing’s been agreed. Liverpool never had that on their agenda last time – it was PSG, Real Madrid and Barcelona.
“I would be absolutely amazed if, in a year’s time, Saudi Arabia didn’t come knocking for Mo Salah given his status as the most famous footballer in the Arabic world; an icon of African and Arabic football. Of course they’re going to want to show him off. I can only imagine the kind of offers that would be made for Salah! He’s already on incredible money at Liverpool – he will be offered incredible money x3 by Saudi Arabia, probably.
“I do think it’s an issue Liverpool will have to confront or think about at some point. Hopefully not this summer. There are a few weeks left in the Saudi window, which could cause a few problems for some clubs, especially once the European window closes. Klopp’s already spoken about this and there have been a few other players from his squad linked, like Diaz, Alisson and Thiago. I think Liverpool would be crazy to consider selling anyone else from the first-team if they don’t have to.
“In the future, though, I think Salah’s future isn’t one you can ignore. You have to start looking at it next summer when he’ll be 32 with a year left on his contract. Would Liverpool give him another long-term contract? Plus there’ll likely be a pretty aggressive move from Saudi Arabia to bring him over.”
Salah may now be the wrong side of 30 but he’s showing no signs of slowing down – he got off the mark on Saturday after netting in our 3-1 defeat of Bournemouth and he’s looking as fit as ever.
The Egyptian King looks after himself extremely well and you’d suspect that he’s still got a good few years ahead of him at the highest level.
Saudi clubs will almost certainly come calling for the 31-year-old next summer and at that point he’ll be entering the final 12 months of his deal.
He’ll have a decision to make with the eye-watering finances on offer in the Middle East but until then let’s continue to enjoy watching him find the back of the net and let’s hope he can fire us towards more silverware this term!
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