Liverpool to hold crunch talks with Mane, Salah over futures after title win
Liverpool are planning fresh talks with Mohamed Salah and Sadio Mane to determine if they see their futures elsewhere.
The star duo both got on the scoresheet when Liverpool beat Crystal Palace 4-0 in their most recent game. That effectively wrapped up the title, which was confirmed the following day when Chelsea beat Manchester City.
Indeed, Salah and Mane have been at the forefront of Liverpool’s growth under Jurgen Klopp. That has now culminated in their first league title in 30 years, which may help convince the duo to stay.
Mane and Salah have been linked with moves away if they grow unsettled at Anfield. The likes of Real Madrid have understandably been mentioned as being interested.
And according to Duncan Castles, Liverpool are willing to speak to the pair to see how they envisage their long-term future.
Castles said on the Transfer Window Podcast (via the Express) that Liverpool are “happy to have conversations with key players to find out whether they see a future elsewhere.”
The journalist pointed to their “strategic” and “intelligent” transfer model. Liverpool’s transfer activity shows planning for the future – which involves getting the maximum from their assets as well.
Castles claims that Liverpool are willing to speak to key players to find out “whether they see that their period at the club has a certain length and that they’d like to move to another league”.
Mane and Salah are two players regularly mentioned as potentially being tempted away. And Castles says that Liverpool are open to talks with the duo, as they would want prior warning if they were to leave.
Such negotiating tactics were also seen when Liverpool sold Philippe Coutinho to Barcelona back in 2018. Rumours of the move had lingered for months, before Liverpool finally allowed him to depart.
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Castles says that if Salah and Mane want to leave, Liverpool will also want to know in plenty of time.
“Sadio Mane and Mo Salah are obvious examples of that and they want to have those conversations because they want to be forewarned,” he said. “And they want to set up in a way that they maximise the value on the transfer coming in and they are able to bring in a replacement of equal quality or equal potential to have the same quality at a cheaper price.
“You’ve seen the way Liverpool have recruited, they go to the second tier of the market. They spend €50million, €60m, €70m on bringing players in who they believe will turn into €100m-plus players and they’ve done it successfully on multiple occasions now.
“That has been part of their strategy going into this window.”
With both Salah and Mane now 28, time is running out if they seek a big move away from Anfield. However, they have played a crucial role for Liverpool this season, helping them to the Premier League title having already won the Champions League and Club World Cup in 2019.