Former Liverpool defender Mark Lawrenson has no doubt in his mind that the club may have struck a handshake agreement with Mohamed Salah promising he can pursue a lucrative move away this summer.
Lawrenson told Paddy Power of his suspicions that the two parties could have made that kind of agreement when the club rebuffed a huge transfer bid from Saudi Pro League side Al-Ittihad late in the summer window.
If accepted, that move would have lined both the club and the players’ pockets considerably, but Salah was considered too valuable to Liverpool’s plans for the season to be allowed to depart, especially since they would not have had time to pursue an adequate replacement.
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Former Liverpool defender and BBC pundit Mark Lawrenson at a game between Burnley and Sunderland in 2017.
That, coupled with Salah’s contract being set to expire in summer 2025, has led Lawrenson to theorise that Liverpool may have told Salah they would let him leave at the end of the season – alongside Jurgen Klopp, as it turns out – if he knuckled down to help the club challenge for silverware one last time.
Lawrenson said: “One hundred per cent Mo Salah will definitely leave this summer. No matter what happens this season, I think there was a deal last summer.
“He’ll go and play somewhere like Saudi Arabia and hopefully Liverpool get a massive fee and get a couple of players off the back of it. Salah will be a king in Saudi!
“He could have gone last summer and stormed into Jurgen Klopp’s office and said ‘I want to go’ but he’s not done that. The lads who have come in know that they’re fighting for their position, which is great, as long as a couple of them don’t get injured.”