WHAT NEW SALAH CONTRACT MEANS FOR LIVERPOOL

It was a boring Friday till Ramy Abbas Issa, the representative of Mohamed Salah, posted a cryptic laughter emoji on Twitter. Abbas Issa has previous for this after he received a lot of online bashing for a similar post last season straight after a Jürgen Klopp interview.

In the interview, the manager had suggested the club had done all it could in contract negotiations with the Egyptian star. So when the club’s official Twitter handle quote tweeted today’s cryptic post with a face-palm emoji, it seemed all hell was about to break lose.

It is almost unheard of for the club to publicly react to an agent’s tweet. It looked for all intents and purposes that the relationship between the two camps had broken down beyond repair. Jamie Carragher even chimed in with a scathing criticism of the agent.

A few minutes later, Salah posted a vacation snap at a pool. Not long after that, the club released a video of Mo reading online comments on a phone before putting on the new home kit and announcing “Salah stays”. Talk about a mic drop moment!

This has come completely out of the blue, with no journalist getting a sniff of the deal till the announcement was released. That is how Liverpool operate and it has transformed this mundane Friday to one we’ll never forget.

The new contract is a three year deal worth a reported £350,000 a week. It is an incentivised contract which allows room for bonuses to be earned. This ensures the player is paid what he feels he’s worth whilst the club remain confident they’ll get the bang for their buck.

It can’t be underestimated just how seismic this announcement is in the grand scheme of things. The departure of Sadio Mané to Bayern Munich this window was extremely hard to swallow, and the thought of Salah following him through the door next summer was scary.

How do you even go about replacing a player that averages almost 43 goals and assists a season? Thankfully we won’t have to find out for another few years. The length of the deal is of particular intrigue as well.

Having turned 30 a little over two weeks ago, Salah will be 32 years old when he enters the final year of this new deal in 2024. This protects the club in the event that the player’s contributions on the pitch fall off a cliff (like Arsenal experienced with Ozil and Aubameyang for example).

The club has secured the future of the one of the very best players in the world, sending a very strong message across board. First it suggests the club isn’t against rewarding players with huge contracts when they are deserving.

Mo has given five years of astonishing service, and crucially, he doesn’t show any signs of slowing down. This deal also informs the rest of the squad that the club still wants to win. Keeping our best player is a clear sign that we will keep fighting and challenging for silverware.

Rival clubs are also put on notice. Salah isn’t going anywhere, and neither are the Reds. If some were counting on Mané and Salah to depart in consecutive seasons then they can think again. There is no huge rebuilding to be done. This era isn’t over by a long shot.

A message is also sent to potential targets. Salah is a world class talent that has grown to a level where he inspires a lot of young footballers. He is the kind of player others desire to play with. His new deal is a huge pull for any future targets (Jude Bellingham perhaps, wink wink).

This is great news for the manager as well. When he himself put pen to paper on a contract extension back in April, he was given assurances by the owners that the team would remain competitive. Keeping Mo certainly fits in with that concept.

The manager no longer has to unearth the ‘next Mo Salah’ as he can forge ahead with the original version at the peak of his powers. The steady building of the next great Liverpool team continues at a pace where the team is still able to challenge for honours.

Finally for the player himself, this deal is a huge show of faith in him by the club’s heirarchy. They have bent their own rules to keep him. He is now in the top five for the highest paid players in the league, deservedly so.

Mo has always said he loves the club and wants to stay so it’s great news all round. He can now put all that uncertainty behind him and focus on breaking more records. He’s currently ninth on the club’s all time topscorer list.

An unbelievable feat considering he’s only been here five years. He needs 30 goals to equal Steven Gerrard’s haul for the club. (186 goals), and you wouldn’t bet against Mo surpassing Mr. Liverpool himself by season’s end.

This is a wonderful bit of news anyhow you slice it. You only have to read Jürgen Klopp’s reaction to see the regard everyone holds Mo in. Here’s to three more years of rip-roaring success to add to the six trophies he’s already lifted.