Mo Salah is back, better and hungrier than ever…and full of desire to atone for the heartbreak in the final two matches of last season.
That is the view of manager Jurgen Klopp, who believes the new contract his star player finally signed in the summer, after a year of tortuous negotiation, has removed the cloud of uncertainty that inevitably hung over his team.
Salah became the highest paid player in Anfield history when he agreed the new, highly incentivised deal worth potentially around £400,000 a week, and Klopp believes that gave everyone at the club a huge lift - including the Egyptian King himself.
“It gave all of us a boost and him as well. He looked really sharp in the whole pre-season to be honest,” the manager said of the three year agreement.
And asked if it has lifted a weight off his forward he added: “I don’t know 100 percent but he is in really good shape and of course he is happy to be here.
“It is of course much better than if we would have been out of contract next summer. It helps much better to know exactly as much as possible about the season after rather than one year.”
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Even Salah’s team-mates felt Salah was affected by the talk around his contract as the goals dried up towards the end of last season, with Virgil van Dijk admitting recently: “At the end of the season, from maybe April until the end, there was a lot of talk about (his) contract and stuff. We’re all human beings and maybe that affected him a little bit, unfortunately."
But now it is all resolved, Klopp believes the certainty of the next three years - with so many of his stars now signed on long term contracts - will help the quest for honours.
“It is different because we all know exactly where we all will be,” he said. “It was clear to me in the end we would get the deal over the line but it is still an open thing, everyone talks about it all the time and we are humans. And yes, (it is good) knowing where he will be for the next very, very important years in his career.”
While Salah’s return to form is good news for Klopp, there was some bad news, with Ibrahima Konate sidelined for some weeks with a knee injury. And the manager admitted that may affect the proposed sale of centre half Nat Phillips.
“Probably. (Konate’s injury) will influence the outgoing transfers, I would say.”
