Mohamed Salah has been cautioned that his current contract may have caused unrest at Liverpool amid ongoing speculation about his future.
Salah, who extended his contract in 2022, is now in the final year of his deal and has stated that “nobody at the club” has discussed a new contract with him.
The 32-year-old is reportedly earning £350,000 a week, making him Liverpool’s highest-paid player in history.
Former Premier League striker Troy Deeney has suggested that Salah’s substantial wages may have negatively affected the team, with several of his teammates reportedly seeking similar pay increases.
“There was talk in football that [Salah’s] extension rocked the boat a little bit, because it was so far above everybody else that it kind of made Liverpool go hold on – everybody else came to the forefront like ‘where’s my money?’,” Deeney claimed on talkSPORT.
Mohamed Salah isn’t the only key player entering the final year of his contract.
Both captain Virgil van Dijk and vice-captain Trent Alexander-Arnold are in similar positions.
However, Troy Deeney believes Alexander-Arnold would be the ‘easier one to replace’ among the trio.
“Van Dijk is not getting any younger, but I think, and this is going to sound really harsh, but in order of priority I would have gone, Salah first, Van Dijk second then Trent,” he explained.
“What I mean by that is you are going to need at least two players to recreate what Salah gives you, goals and assists-wise.
“Centre-back – every centre-back they have got apart from Van Dijk is a number two.
“It’s very difficult to go out and find, as Man United are finding, to find that number one centre-back.
“I think of the three, he (Alexander-Arnold) is the easier one to replace.”
Liverpool coach Arne Slot remains ‘optimistic’ about the future prospects of all three players.
“If we bring the best out of them and they perform really well then it’s up to them if they want to sign and us if we give them a new contract,” Slot told Sky Sports last month.
“The main thing for all of them, if you’re out of contract or not, is to get the best performance as possible and there is where I should and will help them with my staff, to bring out the best of them.
“Until now it’s been nothing but positive.
“Mo came back really strong in terms of physique, Virgil as well, Trent did the same and they brought in good performances against Ipswich which was only the first game.”
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