Mohamed Salah has received his final contract answer from Liverpool

Now the dust has settled on Sadio Mane’s exit from Liverpool and Darwin Nunez’s arrival, thoughts turn to what it means for the club’s protracted contract talks with Mohamed Salah.

There is a clear message to be drawn from Liverpool’s handling of Mane’s contract demands for Salah and his talks over a new deal. Like Salah, Mane had a year left on his Anfield deal and reportedly wanted close to £400,000–a-week to sign fresh terms. His argument was that as one of the Premier League ’s best players, he should be paid the same as his peers like Kevin De Bruyne and Cristiano Ronaldo. But his case ignored Liverpool’s carefully-managed wage structure and the club’s top earner is Virgil van Dijk on around £220,000-a-week.

Liverpool do not have a sovereign wealth fund from some Middle Eastern country to bankroll them and they have always been careful not to spend beyond their limits. They could not afford to pay Mane £400,000-a-week, even if they wanted, and the same is true of Salah.

Like Mane, Salah’s team make the case that he should receive a new deal that reflects his status as one of the world’s best players. Like Mane, he also wants around £400,000-a-week, which his camp say is the going rate for a player of his ability.

But like Mane, Liverpool cannot afford to hand him such a deal because it would shatter their wage structure and have the likes of van Dijk, Thiago Alcantara and Alisson knocking on their door, wanting similar pay rises. That is why they reluctantly sold Mane to Bayern Munich for £35.1million, where he will reportedly earn £360,000-a-week, but only after they had landed Nunez from Benfica for a potential club record £85million.

Nunez suddenly gives Liverpool leverage in their contracts with Salah and in