Perry Groves has told talkSPORT that Mohamed Salah will have to lower his wage demands as there is ‘no chance’ Liverpool will pay the winger £500k-a-week to renew his contract.
Reports by the Mirror over the weekend claimed Salah has requested a weekly wage of half-a-million-pound to extend his contract. The Egyptian’s current deal will expire in 2023, making him one of the Reds’ latest priorities for new terms.
The Merseyside natives have recently moved to secure the futures of a string of their most important senior players. Jurgen Klopp is anxious to now see Salah renew and ward off potential interest from Real Madrid and Paris Saint-Germain.
Yet Salah, who currently earns £200k-a/w, wants Liverpool to more than double his pay to stay. A £500k-a/w deal would not only make the 29-year-old the Reds’ top-earner, but the second-best-paid player in the Premier League, per Spotrac. Only Cristiano Ronaldo makes more at £510k-a/w, ahead of Kevin de Bruyne (£400k-a/w) and David de Gea (£375k-a/w).
Liverpool are willing to give Salah a hefty pay rise to renew, but not his structure-shattering request, which Groves believes is unrealistic.
“He merits more, but he’s not going to get £500k-a-week,” Groves said. “I think this is the first in the duelling of the negotiations but if he wants to stay, he’ll have to come down a bit.
“His numbers are outstanding. He still got 22 league goals in a team that wasn’t firing last year. He does deserve another contract, but Liverpool are not in the realms of paying a player £500k-a-week.
“He might have to be a bit more realistic in his demands. Is this him saying: ‘Right, I could be off’? Who knows? He’s definitely not getting 500 grand-a-week, no chance.”
Should Liverpool pay Salah £500k-a/w, despite Groves doubts?
Like Groves suggests, Salah will believe his efforts deserve Liverpool rewarding him with a contract among the Premier League’s top-earners. But it would shatter their pay structure to sanction his request, with Virgil van Dijk’s £220k-a/w deal their most expensive.
However, Salah last renewed his contract in July 2018, and has been a sensation over the three following years. No one outscored (22) the 29-year-old in 2018/19, while ending the year with the highest total goal involvements (32), too.
Salah slipped to fourth for the Golden Boot in 19/20 with 19 goals, but was second for total involvements (29). And he rose back to second last season with 22 goals – one less than Harry Kane – and was third for involvements (27) – behind only Kane and Bruno Fernandes.
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