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Liverpool Echo
Liverpool Echo
Sport
Dave Powell

Why FSG will never consider Mohamed Salah contract ultimatum at Liverpool

The Mohamed Salah contract saga took yet another twist on Friday.

After Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp's public declaration that the the decision now lay with Salah, it didn't take long for his agent, Ramy Abbas Issa to rather childishly take to social media with a Twitter post consisting of a bunch of crying eyes laughing emojis.

Salah's agent has been known to court controversy in a similar manner before, using social media as a tool to post cryptic messages over the future of his most valuable client.

Salah continues to shine and continues to work hard for the Liverpool cause, and while the contract rumblings have been a theme for the past 12 months or so, the most recent move by Abbas Issa in this game of chess he appears to be having with Liverpool and Fenway Sports Group risks being an unwelcome distraction to Salah, Klopp and the Reds' quest to claim an unprecedented quadruple.

It's hard to imagine that there is a Liverpool fan out there who doesn't want to see Salah pen a new deal with the club and continue on the remarkable journey he started back in 2017.

But these discussions with Salah break new ground for both Liverpool and FSG, and there will come a point, if it hasn't already been reached, that they say they cannot bend further to meet the demands of the Egyptian.

Setting the stall out here, Salah is a world class player and has been over the past year to 18 months, arguably the best player on the planet. And at 29 and in the form of his life, outshining his peers across Europe, he is well within his rights to receive what some of those are getting elsewhere, some who simply aren't on the same level as Salah.

He wants the going rate, and he holds enough aces in his hand to know that he can get that. Whether that is at Liverpool or elsewhere remains to be seen.

FSG aren't universally popular among Liverpool fans. As an ownership group its hard to find one more polarising, at least if you were to use social media sentiment as a measurement.

For some they are smart, savvy and have implemented a system that allows the club to grow, flourish and deliver success within the confines of a sensible business model.

They rely on hiring the right people in the right positions, evidenced by their desire to land Klopp long before they did, and Champions League, Premier League, FIFA Club World Cup and two League Cups suggest that it has been a model that has delivered.

READ MORE: Jurgen Klopp offers update on Mohamed Salah Liverpool contract talks

READ MORE: Sadio Mane told to leave Liverpool for club he 'loves a lot'

On the flip side of that there have been some very obvious black marks against them.

The attempted furloughing of staff at the onset of the pandemic; the attempt to raise season ticket prices and, worst of all, the attempt to take Liverpool into a breakaway European Super League have all fuelled the fire for those who haven't been sold on FSG.

While all of those decisions were reversed, FSG's model among some is seen as being inadequate to compete with the spending power shown at the likes of Manchester City and, once upon a time, Chelsea.

Maintaining a wage structure, operating a strong businesses that can wash its own face and choosing to spend less and banking on the system and the coaching staff finding the value others missed hasn't always been viewed as a major positive.

In an era where their rivals spent £100m on Jack Grealish and other European giants are the ones linked with the likes of Kylian Mbappe and Erling Haaland, FSG are seen in some quarters as being unwilling to spend on achieving success.

Replacing Salah like for like seems pretty impossible right here, right now. He is at the peak of his powers. A player like him, in the current market, is worth £100m and then there is the likely £400,000 to £500,000 per week that it would cost to keep them happy.

But while football fandom tends to live in the moment, the bigger picture is something that club ownership has to look at, especially when owners run the football club like a business and cost control actually means something.

We've seen this past week what it looks like when the party is over.

For so long Chelsea were a team some Reds fans may have looked at in terms of their ownership and wished that they had owners with such an open-wallet policy, willing to fund any losses and where balancing the books was only a concern due to the need to comply with Financial Fair Play regulations.

After Roman Abramovich's sanctions by the UK Government due to his historic ties with Russian president Vladimir Putin, brought into focus following Russia's military invasion of Ukraine, Chelsea have been hit hard and find themselves unable to even sell matchday tickets, seeing sponsors end their associations and left facing an uncertain future with regards to just who comes in and takes over.

And with football currently now trying to finally ask the questions around where the money actually comes from, politically controversial sources of ownership are off the agenda at Stamford Bridge.

In his press conference ahead of Liverpool's trip to Brighton & Hove Albion, Klopp himself addressed the issue.

Said the Reds boss: "Did anyone really care when Roman Abramovich came to Chelsea?

"Did anyone really care when Newcastle got taken over? Do supporters really care?

"It is a question. It is pretty obvious where the money is coming from. Everyone knew it, but we accepted it.

"That’s our fault. It is society’s fault so we accepted it. Now we cannot accept it anymore and so we punish them, it is not Chelsea’s fault. Not at all.

"I have no idea about what background checks [for new owners] would look like.

"But I can tell you I am six and a half years here and from the first day I came here I was really happy with our owners and in these times I am even more happy with our owners.

"In the end, owners are there to lead the club, to give financial resources when they want to make a benefit."

To keep Salah there would have to be more financial resources committed. But it isn't just about finding the extra money that he may be seeking, it will be about how taking such a decision impacts squad harmony, how it impacts Liverpool's next contract renewals, how it affects the wages they pay to sign new players and how agents view them; a soft touch that can be leaned on or resolute?

There are many calls to 'pay him what he wants'. That has seldom been the basis for smart business decisions.

Liverpool's wage bill has risen by 175 per cent from what it was in 2011, the first financial year that FSG owned the club. It now stands at £314m which places them fourth, £9m behind Manchester United, £29m behind Chelsea and £41m behind Manchester City.

In the case of Chelsea theirs included bonuses for winning the Champions League while City's included bonuses for Premier League success, something included in Liverpool's 2019/20 accounts where they had a wage bill of £325m.

Liverpool, while paying their best players the biggest wages, have done a pretty good job at being a rising tide to lift all boats, with wages across the board providing greater squad harmony and reducing the risk of carrying enormous hefty contracts, as has been seen in the past with Alexis Sanchez at Manchester United and Mesut Ozil at Arsenal. Paying more than others would be willing to pay in wages to take those players off you isn't good for business.

Players are thinking of the next three or four years, owners have to think of the next 10 or 15. In Salah's case FSG will have to weigh up whether they sell and use money to reinvest in more talent like Luis Diaz; whether to allow Salah to run out his deal and leave on a free in two years but still be a major contributor for the next couple of seasons, or whether they pay to tie him down until he's 34 or 35.

There's no easy decision to be made, and there is nothing to suggest that his influence drops off at 34, look at the age of some of Europe's elite performers now. Robert Lewandowski is 34 this year and there is still no finer finisher in football.

Whatever happens with Salah's future he has earned the right to determine it.

If it is to be another few years filled of Salah magic then marvellous. If it is to be a farewell tour for another season, so be it. If it is to be an early parting of the ways to allow for Liverpool to plan for the longer term with less risk, then history shows us it has worked.

The January move for Luis Diaz and the way that he has settled into life at Anfield was a timely reminder that signing the right players at the right time, and not just the most expensive, is the Liverpool way now, and one that has delivered their best side since the heady days of the 1980s.

Liverpool under Klopp has allowed talent to thrive and greatness to be created. Does that happen at Paris Saint-Germain?

Lionel Messi, Mbappe and Neymar Jnr will be doing some thumb twiddling while Liverpool are in the quarter finals of the Champions League. Strategy and structure trumps reckless spend every time.

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