David James is confident one of the Liverpool players whose contracts expire next summer will agree a new deal at Anfield in the near future.
Mo Salah, Trent Alexander-Arnold and Virgil van Dijk are all set to become free agents in nine months time, but the former Reds goalkeeper has backed the Egyptian in particular to keep him at the club for longer.
According to the Daily Star, the 54-year-old last week slammed the striker’s agent, Rami Abbas, for allegedly inaccurately reporting on his client’s contractual situation on social media.
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James said about it: “I think if Mo Salah wanted to leave Liverpool or was concerned about the other opportunities that were available to him, and there will be plenty of them, then I don’t think we would see the form we’ve seen from him so far this season.
“We know he could make a lot of money if he moved somewhere else. So he doesn’t have to perform at the level he does at Liverpool to move to one of those places.
“What Mo is doing is looking like he can have the best season ever at Liverpool so I think he will stay. He is not slowing down and is changing gears.”
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James agrees wholeheartedly that Salah’s performances since the start of the season are not the kind of performance that would make a Liverpool player want to leave. The Egyptian has scored in each of his first three Premier League games under Arne Slot.
We know Al Ittihad made a £150m bid last year and it is safe to say there will be no shortage of suitors keen to capitalise on the contractual uncertainty at Anfield, but none of them appear to be swaying the 32-year-old easily.
If our No.11 is desperate to stay at the Reds beyond next summer, he is on the right track to putting pressure on the club hierarchy to make a contract offer. It is hard to understand why he would not do so when he is in such flying form and has been so prolific for LFC.
Until Salah’s future is decided, the conversation will inevitably continue. With the transfer window now less than three weeks away, it’s tempting to think Richard Hughes is in the process of persuading Salah, Trent and Van Dijk to extend their respective stays at Liverpool.
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