Mohamed Salah’s winner against Brighton, which took Liverpool top of the Premier League table, was a timely reminder of what the Reds could lose if contract talks do not go well.
And a slightly cryptic social media message on Sunday has some fans worried.
Forward Salah, and defenders Trent Alexander-Arnold and Virgil van Dijk, have been three of the rocks of Liverpool’s recent era of success – and yet in nine weeks they could all sign deals elsewhere to leave the club for free.
The trio are all out of contract at the end of the season and it comes the season after legendary manager Jurgen Klopp left the club.
“Top of the table is where this club belongs. Nothing less. All teams win matches but there’s only one champion in the end,” wrote Salah on X., external
“That’s what we want. Thank you for your support last night. No matter what happens, I will never forget what scoring at Anfield feels like.”
It was the “no matter what happens” that makes a new deal look far from a formality.
Former Manchester City defender Micah Richards said on Saturday’s BBC Match of the Day: “They have got to sign Mo Salah up, it is imperative they give him a two-year deal.
“He doesn’t have to play well to score goals and have big moments. That is a the difference between a very good player and a top player.”
With 220 goals in 364 games, Egyptian Salah is the fifth on Liverpool’s leading goalscorer list, just eight behind Billy Liddell.
His latest was a peach as he curled an effort into the far corner from the right. It was the 48th time he had scored a winning goal in the Premier League.
“A Mo Salah special,” was how Slot described it. “It’s not the first and not the last time he will score from that position.”
Salah has been a revelation since joining Liverpool, despite being a winger who had never scored 20 goals in a season before.
For Premier League goals and assists combined, only seven players have been involved in more than his 238 since the Premier League’s 1992 formation.
Only Salah and Wayne Rooney have both scored and assisted 10 or more goals in five different Premier League seasons – a record he will hope to have on his own later this campaign, given he already has six goals and five assists.
Liverpool have won an impressive 13 out of 15 games since Arne Slot succeeded Klopp in the summer, including on Saturday where they responded to a first half which Brighton had dominated.
“They came out in the second half with a completely different attitude,” said BBC pundit Chris Sutton. “That was Klopp-like intensity from Slot’s team in the second half and that could be a massive win for Liverpool.”
Ferdi Kadioglu gave Brighton the lead, with Van Dijk setting up fellow Netherlands international Cody Gakpo’s equaliser, before Salah’s winner.
