25 Mar 2026 18:32:12
With Salah's contract cancelling by mutual consent, I assume he will walk away on a free.
I also remember that the club were advised not to offer him a large 2 year contract.
Who makes these decisions and how are they still in a job?
25 Mar 2026 18:53:14
It was the right decision at the time, after the season he had, it would have been madness to cut ties. Unfortunately not every decision works out.
25 Mar 2026 18:53:24
The same people who won't relieve the current manager of his duties.
25 Mar 2026 19:00:55
Lots of hindsight geniuses popping up, a year ago, the majority of the fanbase were freaking out because he hadn't signed a new contract.
25 Mar 2026 19:04:17
Yeah it's a negotiation.
I'm sure we did try and get him on a 1yr contract or even a 1yr rolling contract.
However, Salah's form in the first half of last season created a very strong negotiating position.
He forced our hand. He deserved it.
25 Mar 2026 19:14:34
In all fairness, how do you not secure a player who just had a record breaking title winning season? Can you imagine the backlash if we let Salah walk after last year? 46 g/a.
All the cards were stacked in his favour, every last one. It was less of a negotiation and more like a list of demands, all we could do was say yes or no, and no, really wasn't an option.
25 Mar 2026 19:16:07
Not a hindsight geniuses, ArnieJ, just my opinion as a fan of 50 years as I'm not paid hundreds of thousands pounds a year to make these decisions.
25 Mar 2026 19:18:14
It's a business. MO's contract extension reflected his value to the club at the time. Things change and his value to the club has diminished. Apart from anything else, he has been nothing short of world class for the decade he has been at the club. He owes nothing to the club.
{Ed025's Note - did he not get paid (very handsomely) for playing for those 9 years WDW?, i believed that he was signing a new deal last year on a mind boggling £400k a week plus bonuses to protect his value if he was to be sold before its termination mate?..or am i wrong?
25 Mar 2026 20:13:04
I had thought similar to ed25 that a 2 year contract would've been to protect his value to a certain degree. I'm v surprised we haven't tried to get a fee for him, he has had a v poor season but he has still 10goals and 9 assists. Compare that to a lot of wide players and I'd day it's fairly favourable. Stats like that don't tell all the story as there's been games where he's been non existent, but then we could say that about 80% of our team.
Still I would've thought we couldve got decent fee, £15-20m for him. I wouldn't price him out of a dream move if he wanted it but I'm sure whoever he goes to will be paying him handsomely so couldve afforded a transfer fee
25 Mar 2026 21:06:09
If we accepted anything less than £20m fee it would mean we’re losing money compared to just letting him walk.
His wages still have to be paid, by us, if we accept a transfer fee. We have to pay to break his contract which means paying it off. His wages are £20m per season.
Then the player and his agent have to accept the new club and their wages in preference to waiting one more season at Anfield and getting a free transfer.
So essentially you’re looking for a club, which offers significantly more than £20m transfer fee (as the player and their agent take their cut), will pay him a wage which he will accept (so probably close to £20m per year), he will probably want multiple years and it is a club which the player wants to play for.
Otherwise he stays and sits out his contract for a season.
If, if, he was still performing like he performed when he signed the contract then you might just find that Goldilocks of a deal. But the way he’s playing now? No club is going to pay that transfer fee and give him that deal in preference to waiting an extra season.
This solution of negotiating an early end to his contract seems the least painful to me.
{Ed025's Note - you make a good case Ron..
25 Mar 2026 21:13:16
I'm very irritated about this situation. I've been saying it for months, but shipping any players out after the crap Slot has been forcing on all of us makes no sense to me.
What makes even less sense is letting him go on a free.
How is it just one nonsensical, baffling decision after another by our club these days? Is there nothing that isn't a total mess and needing sorted? Why does everything just seem to be put off until this summer? Seems like a lot of serious stupidity going on all season long, and I'm getting more and more frustrated by it.
{Ed025's Note - it seems contracts are not worth the paper they are written on Snuggles, players and their agents hold all the aces it seems mate..
25 Mar 2026 21:15:17
I've got that bit about paying off the wages wrong.
The new club takes over the contract if they get the player.
Still, a club is going to have to pay a transfer fee and pay his wages, probably increase them, sign him up for multiple years, and be a club he wants to go to.
On current form, I don't think any club was coming in for him. Most would wait one more season.
25 Mar 2026 22:08:56
The thing people get wrong about contracts is they're not supposed to reflect the previous season. They're supposed to be a prediction of the following season.
When Salah was given a new contract, it wasn't a reward for last season, it was supposed to be an incentive for this one.
{Ed025's Note - and hows that working out so far mate?..
25 Mar 2026 23:54:43
I'm pretty sure his drop off in form is largely due to the slow, laborious build up play, no mid 30s winger is going to beat 2 or 3 set defenders.
Club legend and I wish him well, but these tactics are totally hamstringing him.
26 Mar 2026 04:19:39
If a club decides to sell a player, then I believe they have to pay the agreed loyalty bonus as well. This does not get paid if a player hands in a transfer request. So, along with the £20m in wages, this could have also been saved.
Loyalty bonuses can be in the millions.
{Ed001's Note - if a player hands in a written transfer request they lose their cut of any transfer fee. They are otherwise entitled to 5%.}
26 Mar 2026 12:51:08
I remember there being a number of dissenting voices, myself included, saying Salah should have been let go last season. There may have been a majority but there was hardly a silent minority, so quit with the "hindsight" comments.
Some of us called it right (probably blind luck), most of us didn't.