O’Hara blasts Liverpool’s handling of Salah’s contract issue as ‘unacceptable’
Jamie O'Hara has blasted Liverpool's managing of club superstar Mohamed Salah as 'unacceptable' and implored them to resolve his ongoing contract dispute.
With the £35million sale of Sadio Mane to Bayern Munich earlier this month, the Reds have broken up one of the most successful attacking units in the Premier League, and Salah’s future also remains in huge doubt.
The Egyptian, 30, is set to enter the final year of his contract at Liverpool and an agreement has yet to be reached regarding a new deal.
With the club and Salah’s representatives at loggerheads over his wage demands, there is talk of Liverpool selling their prize asset this summer to ensure they recoup some money and don’t lose him for free next year.
An offer in the region of £60million could persuade the Reds to part company with Salah, according to reports.
That things have got to this point is a huge Liverpool blunder, according to O’Hara, who urged the Reds to come to terms with Salah after having managed to secure a decent fee for Mane.
‘He’s (Salah) going into the final year of his contract, still hasn’t signed a new deal, you’ve seen (Sadio) Mane leave,’ O’Hara told TalkSport.
‘Now they recouped their money with Mane – good bit of business. He’d been at the football club, wanted to go in the end for whatever reasons, which will come out but I’m sure it was down to money.
‘Now Salah could go on a free – that is unacceptable. Liverpool have set the benchmark for how to do business as a football club and they’ve done it brilliantly. But they’ve got to get this sorted out because Mo Salah cannot leave that football club on a free.’
Salah is reportedly demanding wages of £400,000 a week if he is to remain at Liverpool, which represents a significant increase on his current earnings which are just under the £240,000 a week received by the club’s top earner Virgil van Dijk.
While Luis Diaz has been a revelation since arriving in January and Liverpool broke their transfer record to sign Darwin Nunez, losing Salah would be a huge blow.
He scored 31 goals in 51 appearances across all competitions last year, and also provided 16 assists.
