He has told The Football Boardroom Podcast of why Liverpool are parting with an asset that was once considered to be their most prized: “There could be lots of explanatory reasons, but the cold, hard facts are Mo Salah’s form has dipped dramatically.
“Elegant and smart, and it flows from an obvious fact that after the famous blow-up, where Mo essentially dug out Arne Slot. That was a very significant blow-up and we said at the time, it was likely to lead to some sort of divorce. It is the kind of football equivalent of a no-fault divorce. It suits both parties.
“What has happened between the blow-up and now, I think we can safely conclude, that Liverpool would have been looking towards the transfer market to find a way out of a very messy situation with Mo.
“I suspect they found, maybe to their surprise, there wasn’t a market for Mo where someone was going to buy a player with 18 months left on his contract for millions and millions of pounds.
“The cold, hard facts are a player of Mo’s age whose form has dipped, question marks permanently but certainly this season meaningfully, on figures north of £300,000 per week, there was not a transfer market for Mo where he would earn the same amount or more and Liverpool would be paid millions of pounds to release him.
“The two criteria here in elite football are salary and age and profile. There are a tiny number of mega-star footballers who have moved for large transfer fees in their mid-30s. Cristiano Ronaldo is one and people hoped Salah would be another Ronaldo.”