Richard Hughes is poised to meet with the agent of Mohamed Salah for showdown talks that will determine the Egyptian’s fate at Liverpool, and one top source has predicted when an exit will be finalised.
The future of Salah at Liverpool became a huge talking point earlier this month when the winger delivered a series of explosive claims upon being benched for a third successive game.
Salah subsequently apologised to his teammates before departing for AFCON, and also returned to Liverpool’s matchday squad for the clash with Brighton after a one-match omission against Inter Milan.
Talks between Salah and Slot have lowered the temperature, though there are still issues to resolve. Indeed, we’ve been reliably informed Salah has NO INTENTION of accepting a squad role at Anfield.
According to the latest from The Daily Mail’s Merseyside correspondent, Lewis Steele, upcoming talks will go a long way to determining the direction of travel.
Liverpool’s sporting director Richard Hughes is primed to meet with Salah’s agent, Ramy Abbas Issa. As is always the way with Issa, the meeting will be face-to-face, with the agent refusing to discuss high-level matters over the phone or in video calls.
The meeting will take place while Salah is with Egypt at AFCON, and given it’ll take place in person, it means Salah will not be present or have real-time input.
In the event it’s determined Salah must go, a move to Saudi Arabia is anticipated, though according to Steele, the expectation is Salah will NOT leave Liverpool in January.
Offering his prediction on what the outcome of the meeting will be, Steele strongly hinted Salah will see out the season at Liverpool before being sold in the summer.
Steele – who is currently in Morocco covering AFCON – wrote: “Plenty here in Africa have suggested the tensions are far from over and Saudi Arabian clubs remain on red alert ready to pounce should they get any sniff that Salah wants out of Liverpool.
Summer exit would be win-win for all
Selling Salah in the summer would allow Liverpool to collect a sizeable fee for a player who’ll have just turned 34.
At that age, and if this season’s poor form is a sign of decline and not merely a blip, Salah would struggle to justify being a guaranteed starter at Anfield any longer.
A sale would rid Liverpool of the inevitable blowback from Salah if and when he’s benched. It would also allow Salah to continue being a regular starter elsewhere, which he certainly would be in Saudi Arabia.
Furthermore, Liverpool would remove Salah’s hefty £400,000-a-week wages off the books.
Of course, a summer sale would also mean Liverpool get to retain Salah’s services for the remainder of the current campaign.
And with Alexander Isak facing up to three months out with a fractured leg and ankle injury, Slot needs all the goals and attacking wizardry he can get to ensure Liverpool’s underwhelming season can be salvaged.
wepabltuy
28
Just move on, if the coach seriously thinks that you should be blamed, then move on somewhere else in europe. Here are real facts that only people with passion to coaching can understand, comparison is to last season: - Salah is receiving ball in tight areas full of defenders on the wing, both his dribble rate and shots got reduced. Amazingly, his key passes/90 mins increased of last season. This makes sense cause it's unrealistic to dribble past crowded areas with 2 or more defenders. - Some were wrong to point that Salah doesn't tackle similar to Diaz. He never did and was doing amazing all of those yrs. - Core of truth related to LFC form is the Full Back (FB), especially the RB. - Current experiments by Slot, such as Sobo, Jones, Gomez occupying the RB is disaster, especially if Sobo plays as RB. Sobo fits as perfect midfielder. - Current RB experiments leads the RB to invert early or stays deeper, we have seen this many times, Arnold was perfect in that position despite many making fun of him. In effect the current RB does not overlap consistently with Salah. Do you expect Salah to perform when you pass to him in wing and no one else is dragging defenders? - Ok, lets ignore the RB, the RCM should help in those situations. Right? So what's happening right now is that there is tactical structure at all by Slot. Roles are completely random. Current RCM stays close for circulation and rarely runs beyond the line to help Salah. To make things worse, the CF also stays central. - To sum it up, when they attack, they force the defenders to be static and packed (park the bus) So in summary, Salah is used now as A right-side pressure sink only, and this is a structural misuse and lack of proper tactics and players selection by the coach. So... Salah move on where they can use you properly.