Former Liverpool captain Phil Thompson spoke exclusively to the ECHO admitting he is worried and ‘nervous’ about Mohamed Salah’s ongoing contract stand-off with his old club.
The striker’s future has been a popular topic in recent weeks as a deal has yet to be agreed to between club and player. Head coach Jurgen Klopp himself had admitted that the club ‘cannot do much when asked about the contract negotiations a couple of weeks ago except wait for the forward’s final decision.
Salah has notably been in pristine form for the Reds this season, notching 28 goals in 36 appearances in all competitions for Klopp’s side and The ECHO understands that negotiations are currently ongoing between the forward’s camp and the club with him in the final two years of his current deal signed in 2018.
Having consistently extended the contracts of several players over the last year, Liverpool are keen to reward the Egyptian for his continued outstanding contribution since arriving from Roma for £43.9million in the summer of 2017. Unfortunately this time Salah is not putting pen to paper and has instead been linked with a move to Barcelona in recent weeks. The delay has left Thompson conceding that the situation has left him nervous.
“I think we are all nervous, and I think we are all sitting there nervous,” the Reds legend told the ECHO. “The fella scores that many goals for us, he performs to a high level and he doesn’t miss many games, which is massive.
“People forget about that. The fella never gets injured. So, to lose somebody like that would be a massive blow.
“The longer it goes with him not signing, I think we will all be worried. But we all have to have trust, I think, in the club to do whatever is right and whatever it takes to get him to sign.
“And I would think that they are working behind [the scenes on] it. But I can’t say that it will be alright. It will be great. The longer it goes and we saw with Gini Wijnaldum how much he said he loved the club and how he tried to sort things out.
“So it does worry me and I’m just hoping that the way the club is run, the recruitment and doing the contracts in the past, that they come up with a solution.”
Credit: Football Tribe Malaysia
