What are Liverpool playing at?! Mohamed Salah shouldn't just be 'disappointed' about Reds' farcical failure to make new contract offer - he should be furious!

Salah doesn't do many interviews, so the mere fact that he stopped to talk to the press assembled at the players' exit at St. Mary's was significant and surprising in itself. It was obvious that he had something to say, and when he was asked for an update on his future, Salah dropped his bombshell.

"We are almost in December and I haven't received an offer to stay at the club yet," he said, "so I am probably more out than in."

Even just that revelation would have been enough to send Liverpool fans into a frenzy, but Salah piled even more pressure on his employers by revealing that he wants to stay.

"I have been at the club for many years," he said. "There is no club like this. But, in the end, it is not in my hands. As I said before, it is December and I haven't received anything yet about my future."

Salah also admitted that he had no idea why he is still waiting on an offer. "I'm not going to retire soon," he said, clearly suggesting that he feels, quite understandably, that he can continue performing at the highest level for some time to come.

"I'm focusing on the season and I'm trying to win the Premier League and hopefully the Champions League as well. I'm disappointed [with the club] but we will see."

The current situation is utterly unacceptable for Liverpool fans, though. They've long since grown tired of waiting to see what's going to happen.

On a day on which they should be looking forward to two mouth-watering matches, against Real Madrid and Manchester City, they're instead focused on the future of not just one club legend, but three, as Virgil van Dijk and Trent Alexander-Arnold will, as it stands, also be free agents next summer. It's genuinely astounding that all three were allowed to enter the final years of their respective contracts as it was inevitable that the incessant speculation and uncertainty would eventually become a distraction.

Could Salah have kept quiet? Of course, but he's not obliged too. And nor are Van Dijk and Alexander-Arnold, who have also been quizzed constantly about their contractual situations. They're all fantastic professionals - it's hard to see their levels dropping no matter what happens between now and next summer - but it was only a matter of time before one of them eventually spoke out, and Salah was certainly within his rights to do so.

An argument could be made that Michael Edwards and Richard Hughes were entitled to hold off on offering Salah, the highest-paid player in the club's history, a renewal before seeing if he had fully recovered from the injury that unquestionably hindered the winger during the tail end of the 2023-24 campaign.

However, it was obvious even during pre-season that Salah was in excellent shape again, having clearly benefited from a proper break, and FSG's problem is now that their bargaining position has been considerably weakened - arguably to such a point, in fact, that if they do not re-sign their star player, they will face a bitter backlash from a group of fans that have longstanding issues with the owners' perceived parsimony.

The supporters are not stupid. They are acutely aware of the potential pitfalls of giving a thirty-something a lucrative, long-term contract, but Salah has the form and physique to justify a new deal.

Ramy Abbas Issa claimed earlier this month that Salah was "the best player in the world" right now, and while such a statement is to be expected from an agent looking to secure his client a new contract, it's difficult to dispute that claim. Liverpool are top of both the Premier League and the Champions League - and Salah is the main reason why.

Arne Slot has masterfully managed the transition from Jurgen Klopp's 'heavy metal' football to a more measured approach, with Ryan Gravenberch proving a revelation at No.6, and Curtis Jones and Ibrahima Konate having both improved significantly on the Dutchman's watch. Luis Diaz has also added goals to his game, while Van Dijk is back to his best and once again leading by example at the back despite the current impasse over his own renewal.

It is Salah, though, who is once again propelling a Premier League title tilt.

Salah's importance to Liverpool simply cannot be overstated. He has achieved an almost unprecedented level of productivity at Anfield. He's been at the club since 2017 and has never scored fewer than 23 goals across a single season.

On Sunday, he scored in a fifth consecutive Premier League game. The last player to do that for Liverpool? Salah himself, in October 2021, when he went on to net in seven successive matches.

There's also ample evidence to suggest that his importance to his team is only increasing. According to Opta, Salah's 10 goals and six assists have earned Liverpool 17 points so far this season. If it weren't his input, Slot's side would be 13th in the table - 11 points behind Chelsea.

Put quite simply, Liverpool would be lost without him.

It's hardly surprising, then, that the mere prospect of Salah being free to negotiate with other clubs from January 1 provokes a mix of frustration, fear and fury among the fans.

According to former Liverpool CEO Peter Moore, the club is talking with not only Salah's representative, but also those of Van Dijk and Alexander-Arnold, and "feverishly" trying to tie all three down to new deals.

It's also been reported that, in Salah's specific case, the initial talks over a renewal have been "positive", and remain "ongoing". There is simply no changing the fact that it is farcical that we have even got to this stage. All of this potentially damaging drama could have been avoided with decisive decision-making at the highest level. In that sense, this is a mess all of the club's making.

Salah's future should have been sorted, one way or another, during the summer. If Edwards, Hughes and CEO Billy Hogan didn't deem him worthy of another costly contract, they should have cashed in the Saudi Pro League's dream signing there and then. Disgruntled supporters would have been at least able to understand the logic. But allowing the situation to spill over into this season makes no sense.

If the powers that be felt time and patience would be required to agree teams on a renewal, they should have said so. At least then supporters would have known what was going on. Instead, it's being left to a clearly unhappy Salah to provide headline-generating updates that have cast the club in a very unfavourable light.

Liverpool, of course, are renowned for getting deals done behind the scenes and that's an excellent approach to transfers, but the deafening silence over extensions has only heightened the tension at Anfield. In Italy and Spain, sporting directors and CEOs speak to the press on an almost weekly basis. Such transparency would have been most welcome - and helpful - in this particular case.

Because the obvious response to Salah stating on Sunday evening that he’s closer to leaving Liverpool than staying is, ‘What the hell is going on at Anfield?’ And the fact of the matter is, nobody outside the club has any idea whatsoever.