John Aldridge addresses the futures of Mohamed Salah and Jurgen Klopp in part one of his weekly Liverpool column
I had no doubts on Mohamed Salah, only a fool would think he was going to go.
You can’t devalue the team, you can’t devalue our opportunities to go and win cups, and if you sold him it makes a big dent as you can’t do anything for months. I know we’ve got five other – and that’s including Doak – really good strikers, but you’ve got to keep your best and he’s been our best for some time now.
He’d play until he’s 39 or 40, so he’s still got seven or eight years if he wants to play in that league. Super fit, looks after himself, doesn’t get injured – touch wood – and Liverpool are sitting with what I call the ‘Cullinan Diamond’, which is the biggest diamond in the world!
He’s the best Muslim player probably of all time, right up there with the best in the world at the moment and they want him at any cost. He’s only going to grow in value and next summer might be the time they have to cash in, but they can get even more money. He’s at the pinnacle football at the moment.
It’s not for me to say whether he should be allowed to leave next summer, but look, it depends on his contract. He’s only got a year left after next summer.
The club know if Mo wants to go there, it would be silly if he’s got one year left on his contract they’d not sell up and he’d go for nothing at the end of his contract.
If you can get around about £200m for him – that’s the same as about two of the best players in the world at the moment, £100m each – that’s the logical way to go about it rather than let him go for nothing and get another season off Mo. That’s the business side of things at least.
We’ll have to wait and see what happens, it’s all ifs and buts.
As for Jurgen, if Germany came calling I’d hope he’d not leave. I think Jurgen’s a very loyal man so I’d be very surprised if he was to just walk out on Liverpool like that, I really would be.
He’s a man of his word, a man of his honour, so I wouldn’t expect that.
Although, down the line that could happen if he really wants it. It could happen in years to come, he’s still young as managers go.
