As Mohamed Salah's contract stand-off with Liverpool dragged on, it became clear the Liverpool superstar was in no mood to accept anything less than what he's worth.
The Egyptian has become one of the world's very best players since he last put pen to paper and wanted to be rewarded accordingly. With Liverpool's well-documented pay structure, however, that posed issues. Eventually, the two came to an agreement and it was announced on Friday that he has committed his future to Anfield until the summer of 2025
Salah's deal gives him what he wants - a package worth in excess of £350,000-a-week to make him the highest-paid player in the club's history. However, that does not tell the whole story. Liverpool have stressed that the deal is structured with a host of bonus clauses to reach that headline figure.
As a result, they have been able to convince Salah to stay within the boundaries of their first-team wages deals. The attacker hitting the heights he wants is dependant upon success and appearances triggering various unspecified bonus clauses.
The fact Salah has been happy to buy into that principle speaks volumes. At 30-years-old, he could well have gone down the avenue of running down the final year of his contract in search of one last big pay-day elsewhere. Instead, he has been happy to commit to a deal which relies on him continuing to perform at the highest level to be rewarded accordingly.
For Liverpool's perspective, it is a perfect situation and simply underlines the hunger he still has to perform at the levels which have seen him enter the Ballon d'Or conversation and win two PFA Player of the Year awards.
The clause structure gives Salah another incentive to build on a record-breaking campaign where he struck 31 goals in 51 appearances, including 23 in the league which earned him the Golden Boot award. He also grabbed the most assists in the division with 13 - one ahead of teammate Trent Alexander-Arnold.
It was the second-most prolific season in Salah's career after he scored 44 times during the 2017/18 campaign. He almost helped the Reds to their second top-flight title in three years but they finished a point behind champions Manchester City despite winning 16 of their final 18 matches.
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Salah proved to be integral in this run and he will be keen to have another successful campaign as Liverpool challenge for more honours. After signing his new deal, Salah signalled that he hopes the best is yet to come having already achieved so much at Anfield.
“I feel great and [I am] excited to win trophies with the club," Salah told liverpoolfc.com. "It’s a happy day for everyone.
“It takes a little bit of time, I think, to renew, but now everything is done so we just need to focus on what’s next. I think you can see in the last five or six years the team was always going [upwards].
"Last season we were close to winning four, but unfortunately in the last week of the season we lost two trophies. I think we are in a good position to fight for everything. We have new signings as well. We just need to keep working hard, have a good vision, be positive and go for everything again.”
If the structure of his new contract is anything to go by, then Salah has certainly put his money where his mouth is and shown he truly believes the best could bet yet to come for Liverpool.
