Mohamed Salah says he is relaxed about his contract situation at Liverpool, insisting he is not thinking about what comes at the end of the current campaign right now.
Salah is inside the final year of terms signed in the summer of 2022 and is currently the highest-paid player of all time on Merseyside, with a heavily incentivised deal earning him somewhere between £350,000 and £400,000 a week.
The Egypt captain has started the campaign in fine form, scoring twice and claiming an assist for Diogo Jota as Arne Slot’s side began their Premier League term with successive 2-0 wins over Ipswich Town and Brentford.
Having shunned advances from Egypt to form part of their squad for the Olympic Games in Paris in favour of a full pre-season schedule under Slot this summer, Salah looks to have a spring his step and is expected to start for Liverpool this weekend at Manchester United.
The 32-year-old can speak to clubs outside of England about a pre-contract agreement in January and asked about his long-term future after interest from Saudi Arabian champions Al-Ittihad last year, Salah, in a chat with Sky Sports to preview Sunday’s fixture at Old Trafford, stopped short of declaring his plans beyond the end of the current season.
I don’t think much [about the future] to be fair,” Salah says. “The more I think with time there is more wisdom, I would say. Wise. I just came for a season and I said: ‘OK, I have one year left, so let’s just enjoy. Don’t think about the contract, don’t think about anything and really just enjoy it.
I don’t want to think about next year, I don’t want to think about the future, I just [say]: ‘OK, let’s enjoy the last year and we will see.’ Every week [being at my best] is the most important thing. Just take one day at a time and just be grateful to be here and that is it.”Salah adds: “I’m excited for [Sunday’s game], we play Manchester United and usually we don’t play them that early but yes it’s a big game coming up and we are ready.“I just focus on the big games and I always want to have the ability to win the game. I don’t go into the game thinking about the records. I just go to the game and enjoy.
I am trying my best to give everything for the club and the team, sometimes you have luck and sometimes you don’t but I am just enjoying the football. It’s a big change [under Slot], we have been with Jurgen Klopp for seven or eight years and now with the new manager there are different things, I enjoyed it before and I am enjoying it now.“We play different football.
The manager wants us to control the ball more now, with Jurgen it was always just go and counterpress and try to attack them all the time in their half. But now we try to control the game, we try to slow the game down sometimes and that is part of the plan.
We have been together for seven years so you expect the reaction around the football and the field, you expect things but it think it was necessary for us to have, well I don’t want to say it was necessary but the manager leaves, a new manager comes and we are all excited.
We try to give everything and it is necessary to go out of your comfort zone so we try to give our best for the new manager now.“All my life it has been like this (embracing change). When I look back and the way I came to Europe, the way I think now is completely different so every few months I sit alone and try to think what changes I can do in my life and what I can improve.
So I am always out of my comfort zone and I just try to change a lot. It makes you step out of your comfort zone, which is scary for a lot of people but in time when you keep practicing it becomes part of you.”
