The Egyptian King

[Farkmaster]

So even though we don’t need his explosive pace anymore and the style of play suits his sensational ability to pick a pass, set up goals and score them, and his the embodiment of a player who will be in super shape well into his late 30’s, you don’t think we should give him a contract?

So our arguably our greatest ever attacker who is still dominating our goal contributions shouldn’t continue with us?

We do need the explosive pace, or rather it'd be better if we had it somewhere. A fast skillful forward is very expensive. We will need money.

No player in his late thirties should be playing for us regularly.

You act like it's the end of the world if a player leaves too early. It's not. It's not great. You might only get 95% of the juice out of the orange.

What is the end of the world, and one of the horsemen of the apocalypse for any team languishing in failure, is a big ego star, on huge wages, who isnt good enough. It's far better for a player to go one year too early than one year too late.

 

[Dreambeliever]

We do need the explosive pace, or rather it'd be better if we had it somewhere. A fast skillful forward is very expensive. We will need money.

No player in his late thirties should be playing for us regularly.

You act like it's the end of the world if a player leaves too early. It's not. It's not great. You might only get 95% of the juice out of the orange.

What is the end of the world, and one of the horsemen of the apocalypse for any team languishing in failure, is a big ego star, on huge wages, who isnt good enough. It's far better for a player to go one year too early than one year too late.

Late 30’s? He’s 32. He could get a 3 year contract and still not be in his late 30’s when that expires. Salah could stay for 3 more years and it would still be a year too early.
If City get punished appropriately then there is no reason Salah can’t lead us to another title or 2.

 

[Farkmaster]

You: he'll be in super shape until his late 30s.

Me: not for playing football at this level

You: late 30s? Who said anything about late 30s?

You talk about leading us to a title. Salahs drop in form last season was one significant contributing factor to our fall off last season. I didn't ever really think we were on for the title, but if he could sustain his productivity last season, which was unremarkable in the league, we might have been more in it. We need to be looking to continue to improve everywhere in our planning, and that means looking beyond Salah. If we commit 60 million in wages to him we are going more and more and more all in.

Diaz is on less than a third of his wages. If we extend his contract, his wages double. If either of gakpo or Nunez extend, their wages increase. If we say fuck this lot, we need to bring in better, then those replacements have higher wages. If we say we will go for developing talent again, we have no one of prime age in the forward line. We have a good amount of money, but we are on a fixed income. The amount of risk in keeping Salah over a significant time is quite large, and we have other huge contracts looming as well.

 

[rubans]

We do need the explosive pace, or rather it'd be better if we had it somewhere. A fast skillful forward is very expensive. We will need money.

No player in his late thirties should be playing for us regularly.

You act like it's the end of the world if a player leaves too early. It's not. It's not great. You might only get 95% of the juice out of the orange.

What is the end of the world, and one of the horsemen of the apocalypse for any team languishing in failure, is a big ego star, on huge wages, who isnt good enough. It's far better for a player to go one year too early than one year too late.

Late thirties?
You ain’t a City accountant by any chance are you…

Anyway, prefer personally if Salah goes end of this season so he can go out hopefully on top form and a send off he deserves. I don’t think the FSG has interest in extending even at 250k but that’s pure guess work by me ofcourse.

Regarding Diaz and Nunez, they would deserve a new contract if their output doubles or triples this year but Salah is not on his big fat wage by chance. His commercial worth is on a new planet compared to them off the field even with Diaz’s dads antics.

 

[localny]

Wow, you got me thinking. Salah's current cost to the club over three years is UK54. 600, 000 (@UK350K a week).

UK18M in salary a year. It's a lot. Hard to be sentimental on that one.

 

[rubans]

Wow, you got me thinking. Salah's current cost to the club over three years is UK54. 600, 000 (@UK350K a week).

UK18M in salary a year. It's a lot. Hard to be sentimental on that one.

I don’t think anyone is suggesting for sentimentality sake, it has to be on performance and worth to the club.

 

[Brizzle]

If he retires from international football he could carry on at a high level for 2-3 seasons more. If he had players around him who finished their chances to a high level we'd be winning even more trophies.

His game is changing, and he has lost a small amount of that insane pace he had. However he still gets double marked by every opposition, his mate at right back has stopped being an overlapping attacker yet he still tops most metics. Last season Nunez and Diaz between them cost him about 6-8 PL goals from really huge opportunities, if not more. Last season that cross to Diaz probably would have resulted in a header going over, and the chance he scored being saved.

The margins are small but if those around him up their game then I think Salah can keep being a critical part of the team.

However - wages are an issue and we also need to manage his minutes better to get the best out of him. We'd need him to accept this (or he needs to stop playing internationals), and not cause a scene when he's subbed.

 

[Frogfish]

I don't see us changing 2 forwards in a window. The exception could be if Nunez or Gakpo get miffed at not starting - and then we'd want our money back.

More likely is Mo. signs a 2 year extension on the same money and Diaz is off. Or vice versa with a salary increase for Lucho.

I could only see Mo. leaving if Chiesa is a big success as back up and could be promoted to starter when Mo leaves.

 

[Modo]

If he retires from international football he could carry on at a high level for 2-3 seasons more. If he had players around him who finished their chances to a high level we'd be winning even more trophies.

His game is changing, and he has lost a small amount of that insane pace he had. However he still gets double marked by every opposition, his mate at right back has stopped being an overlapping attacker yet he still tops most metics. Last season Nunez and Diaz between them cost him about 6-8 PL goals from really huge opportunities, if not more. Last season that cross to Diaz probably would have resulted in a header going over, and the chance he scored being saved.

The margins are small but if those around him up their game then I think Salah can keep being a critical part of the team.

However - wages are an issue and we also need to manage his minutes better to get the best out of him. We'd need him to accept this (or he needs to stop playing internationals), and not cause a scene when he's subbed.

I don't see him doing that. He really wants that AFCON trophy. Especially after losing in the final twice.
He should retire though because the next AFCON is in Morocco and on paper they're the best team in Africa right now and will be even better in two years, considering how young their team is.

 

[Beamrider]

When I heard his comments on Sky, my immediate take was that he was implying "as things stand" it would be his last season, not that he'd decided he was leaving. It would have been nice if he'd said he wanted to stay, but that's the game. My take was that he would like to have a serious discussion about staying and he would be open to doing so, but of course the money and other terms need to be right. That's the way it works and that's all fine. And ultimately, leaving is the biggest bit of leverage he has, so of course he's going to put that out there.
The good thing was that even if he were to leave, he was pretty clear that he won't be letting up before he goes.

 

[Markeh]

i’ve been keen on him retiring from egypt for ages but yea i don’t see him doing it either sadly

 

[Farkmaster]

I don't see us changing 2 forwards in a window. The exception could be if Nunez or Gakpo get miffed at not starting - and then we'd want our money back.

More likely is Mo. signs a 2 year extension on the same money and Diaz is off. Or vice versa with a salary increase for Lucho.

I could only see Mo. leaving if Chiesa is a big success as back up and could be promoted to starter when Mo leaves.

I'm not sure what the positional plan is for chiesa, or for Salah, I guess, but you do have to imagine that whoever stays of our attacking squad is going to at least want whatever chiesa is on now. It can't be what he was on at Juventus, but it has to be more than gakpo, Diaz and Nunez.

So when people are bandying about it being easy to commit enormous wages on Salah, keep in mind what will be happening elsewhere, and that the most obvious role for chiesa, as the second most expensive wage in attack, is to be the backup for the most expensive wage. That's an odd one. He's not a no name either. He's not some kid who is like oooh, that's mo Salah.

That's not even getting into Trent and vvd.

You can't do everything. We will either have a lean team and if we can play the front three every time, we're great, or we can have a deep squad but go for projects, but we are going to have to make some hard decisions and I don't see the maths working for all of them.

 

[Stevesquash]

I know hes been amazing in the past too, jinking through defences, speeding away from defenders scoring bucketloads of goals, and i know its early days this season, but he seems right back to his very best...

When at his peak with Mane, his passing could be atrocious - to the point you wondered if he was messing up on purpose. Now behind trent possibly hes our best passer. He holds the ball up, makes great decisions and is at least as clinical as I've seen him.

Absolutely loving Mo's play so far. Lets hope ge makes some of our posters eat humble pie, and can keep this up all season. And beyond!

What a difference a new hair style makes!

 

[mom]

He’s been a constant performer for years.
He keeps in incredibly good shape and is a consummate professional so i would have no fears in giving him another couple of years.
Yes he’s lost a yard or so in pace, but look at how he’s evolving. He’s becoming rather adept at assisting and creating whilst still offering a serious threat on goal and keeping defenders busy and distracted. World class.

 

[doctor_mac]

I would extend Salah's contract for 2 years on a reduced fee but with incentives. If he says it doesn't interest him then fair play, he goes with our gratitude for some amazing years.

 

[Dreambeliever]

You: he'll be in super shape until his late 30s.

Me: not for playing football at this level

You: late 30s? Who said anything about late 30s?

You talk about leading us to a title. Salahs drop in form last season was one significant contributing factor to our fall off last season. I didn't ever really think we were on for the title, but if he could sustain his productivity last season, which was unremarkable in the league, we might have been more in it. We need to be looking to continue to improve everywhere in our planning, and that means looking beyond Salah. If we commit 60 million in wages to him we are going more and more and more all in.

Diaz is on less than a third of his wages. If we extend his contract, his wages double. If either of gakpo or Nunez extend, their wages increase. If we say fuck this lot, we need to bring in better, then those replacements have higher wages. If we say we will go for developing talent again, we have no one of prime age in the forward line. We have a good amount of money, but we are on a fixed income. The amount of risk in keeping Salah over a significant time is quite large, and we have other huge contracts looming as well.

And a huge part of that drop was us going for everything and our style of play under Klopp which is more taxing than Slots more measured approach.
You said no player should be playing for us in his late 30’s. Salah won’t be in his late 30’s for 5 more years. We could easily give him a three year deal and he’d still only be in his mid 30’s when that deal expires. To say you don’t want to give him a new contract at 32 is bonkers.

 

[keniget]

I reckon Salah would be happy to stay but can't imagine he'd accept reduced terms / minutes.

 

[binomial]

There is a genuine lack of quality wide players that play on that right side around Europe (other than Mo and Saka, you only really have Sane and Raphinha) so I'm wondering if the decision is already made up to not renew him.....what the alternative would be? Is it Chiesa and then we sign someone like Bakayoko as understudy?

Do we keep Chiesa as back up and we go after someone big who predominantly plays on the left and switch them? Is it possible we have some private agreement with Gordon and his agent to sign him on a cut price deal next summer?

 

[Dreambeliever]

I reckon Salah would be happy to stay but can't imagine he'd accept reduced terms / minutes.

I don’t think his wages are an issue when you look at his overall commercial value, our wage bill and stadium expansion and associated increased match day revenue.

Nevermind the fact he’s heads and shoulders above anyone else in the squad in terms of goal contributions and I don’t see that changing in the next few years.

He’s really that good and that driven.

 

[Frogfish]

I like the Chiesa signing. Although one can view him as backup to Mo. he's not just a RW so he'll get games elsewhere too. However it's a sign to Mo. that if his form dips at all then we have options. That if he decides to leave, we already have a replacement. It changes the negotiation narrative.

I'd be OK with giving Mo. a extension of 2-3 years but with built in salary decreases though with added bonuses so if he continues to play, score and assist he'll not be worse off. Also with the understanding though that he will be rested more to ensure longevity and levels, both during a season and by extending his time at a top team.

 

[Farkmaster]

Just to remind everyone, I'd say about half of this forum was fine letting him go due to his awful performances the last few months of the season.

Now he's started well, as he usually does, and there's great urgency to sort out a contract? Like right now?

Why?

Because it's in his interests and he's pushing for it publicly?

 

[Fabio]

Just to remind everyone, I'd say about half of this forum was fine letting him go due to his awful performances the last few months of the season.

Now he's started well, as he usually does, and there's great urgency to sort out a contract? Like right now?

Why?

Because it's in his interests and he's pushing for it publicly?

The only rush to sort it for me, is there's every chance he sorts a pre contract elsewhere in January. It'd be nice if it was sorted by then

 

[binomial]

There were 2 options in the summer, sell or renew.

Ideally we'd have cashed in for a nice chunk but it appears neither party were keen on that idea, now that hopes vanished the only option is to renew and it kinda needs to be in the next couple months.

You'd have to be a brainless cunt to let these guys leave for nothing, that's not looking after the interest of the club.

 

[Frogfish]

Just to remind everyone, I'd say about half of this forum was fine letting him go due to his awful performances the last few months of the season.

Now he's started well, as he usually does, and there's great urgency to sort out a contract? Like right now?

Why?

Because it's in his interests and he's pushing for it publicly?

Also to protect his sales value - zero as it stands.

 

[Farkmaster]

Also to protect his sales value - zero as it stands.

That ship has sailed. He is only very valuable as a free agent due to his age. If we wanted to get some return we would have had to have a willing buyer at a high price a season ago.

The calculus now is just wages.

 

[keniget]

It doesn't feel like we're going to get a big pay day from Salah whether we renew or not.

 

[Frogfish]

That ship has sailed. He is only very valuable as a free agent due to his age. If we wanted to get some return we would have had to have a willing buyer at a high price a season ago.

The calculus now is just wages.

Don't think so. The Saudis will still pay heavily for him. At least enough for us to buy another top player in a position we need to replace/strengthen without dipping into the kitty.

 

[rubans]

And rest of the 50% have always loved Mo from the first moment he scored against Watford on his first game. Not everyone judges his season based on 3 months, would have preferred better finish ofcourse but then was still our best striker by a mile as mentioned loads.

The urgency? I guess the fact he can sign with someone else in 3 months.

I don’t believe this is a play and personally I think he will leave as I think if we were to extend then would have happened by now. Trent I think will also leave but probably Virgil will stay. Happy to be wrong.

 

[Dreambeliever]

Just to remind everyone, I'd say about half of this forum was fine letting him go due to his awful performances the last few months of the season.

Now he's started well, as he usually does, and there's great urgency to sort out a contract? Like right now?

Why?

Because it's in his interests and he's pushing for it publicly?

Because half the forum thought he was finished and did not expect to see him this good again. He looks quicker, fitter, sharper and better than last season to most every fan now.

The rest are just clinging on to their stance that he’s not worth keeping because he’s older and lost his blistering pace, even though his all round game has arguably improved.

Urgency to sort it now so he’s head doesn’t get turned in Jan.

 

[Dreambeliever]

And rest of the 50% have always loved Mo from the first moment he scored against Watford on his first game. Not everyone judges his season based on 3 months, would have preferred better finish ofcourse but then was still our best striker by a mile as mentioned loads.

The urgency? I guess the fact he can sign with someone else in 3 months.

I don’t believe this is a play and personally I think he will leave as I think if we were to extend then would have happened by now. Trent I think will also leave but probably Virgil will stay. Happy to be wrong.

I hope you are wrong on Salah and Trent. Trent would be criminal,