Mo Salah, Liverpool, metrics and emotion
Mo Salah isn’t one who usually uses the media to get his message out there. He’s quite private, respectful to his employers, just letting his glorious “football do the talking” in dressing-room parlance. So Salah’s decision to walk towards a small group of Liverpool beat reporters outside St Mary’s, and open up on his future, was very deliberate. His “more out than in” comment did sound slightly like an umpire in a village cricket match but it certainly sent shock waves through elite football. In a few well-chosen words, Salah ensured he commanded the narrative and the headlines.
Much of the narrative is focused on his age when his contract expires next summer - 33. It was impossible to escape the impression that, as with his words via the written media, Salah addressed the age issue via the photographers at St Mary’s. Anyone questioning Salah’s age, fitness or shape need only look at his ripped physique revealed when he whipped off his shirt after scoring the winner against Southampton.
Salah has done it before, notably when celebrating the goal against Manchester United that sealed the 2020 title. That was pure emotion. This was part emotion, part calculation. His first booking of the season could prove very clever and significant. He stood there, celebrating, the cameras feasting on his abs, looking every inch an athlete in his prime, ready to play on and on. Take that, Boston.
It’s also worth noting that having scored the winner with seven minutes remaining, Salah went hunting for more, missing a decent chance, even hitting the post. Arne Slot kept him on for all eight minutes of added time, removing other attackers like Darwin Nunez but not daring to remove the vital Salah. The game ended with Jack Stephens booked for kicking Liverpool’s most important player. Mo Salah.
This is more than a one-club story. Salah’s contractual impasse is a story of the smart modern player, taking control of the narrative from powerful owners. Salah knows exactly what he is doing. He’s placing pressure on Liverpool’s owners, Fenway Sports Group, by getting the media onside and, particularly, the fans onside. The huge swell of support for Salah builds into a tidal wave of emotion crashing down on Boston. Not only emotion but also metrics showing his enduring value.
Jamie Carragher, a Liverpool club legend, made a cogent argument on Sky Sports last night about Salah. Carragher talked age, finance, and that no one is irreplaceable. All valid points. Except who is there who succeeds Salah smoothly? Liverpool have a tradition of replacing legends, Kenny Dalglish following Kevin Keegan, but Dalglish was always going to deliver because of his skill, determination and experience. Dalglish was ready.
But who can FSG, and their highly capable chief executive of football Michael Edwards, realistically recruit to ease the exit of Salah? Could Liverpool entice the prodigious Lamine Yamal from Barcelona? Very unlikely. Bukayo Saka from Arsenal? No disrespect but no chance. Rodrygo from Real Madrid? Unlikely, and the 23-year-old Brazilian doesn’t offer the goal return of a Salah.