Arne Slot was chuckling away in his press conference ahead of the West Ham game, and talking tertiary benefits of getting a contract extension from Mo Salah. It’s a flex for the Liverpool manager as he pursued his ambition of big signings, knowing that Mo Salah is in his camp.
However, the grinning manager first shared his glee with fans. “Happy ofcourse. He’s shown this club for so many years in a row now how much value he has for team and club so I assume all our fans and his team were very happy and hopefully he can show us again how important he has been for the club,” Slot said.
The manager who’s settled in nicely at Anfield also quipped that as manager he might’ve just had a heads-up on the famous contract extension that Telegraph’s Chris Bascombe put at £480,000 per week. “Relief for fans I’m sure it is. I don’t think it’s a surprise to you that I knew a bit better how his contract situation went over the course of the season. Maybe for fans it was a pleasant surprise. I knew a little bit longer it was headed in right direction,” he said. “I think it’s a big compliment to Liverpool we managed to achieve to extend Mo Salah, such a big player as a free agent. He can probably go to any club wherever he wants to. But he stayed in our club,” he added.
However as manager, Slot has an entire squad to look after, and though he remained tight lipped on confirmations, all indications pointed to Slot having secured two of three key players to stay – with a new two-year deal for Van Dijk to follow, according to ThisisAnfield.com – and giving Liverpool crucial breathing room. “I can tell you I’m very happy with Virgil this season, he’s been incredible for us. Even in the last few games where there were maybe moments where he could do better, but if you look at the other 80 or 90 minutes, he’s such an important player for us. Let’s hope he can do the same what I just I hoped for from Mo, on Sunday, that he can be our leader again as he’s always been this season,” Slot added.
The Reds manager however saw the deeper impact of Mo Salah staying on. It’s a certain flex when chasing other big potential signings.
“If I would put myself in the shoes of a player who we might want to sign, it’s always nice to tell them that Mo has extended his contract,” he told his pre-West Ham press conference. So that helps, but what helps the most is that we kept a quality player that scored seven or eight years in a row so many goals for us. In the end, I just said, football is a game where we are mostly judged on the goals we score and we don’t concede, so it’s helpful to have a player that can score goals, that’s for sure,” Slot admitted.
He discussed the positive aspects of positive vibes in his own inimitable style. “Like I just said, I think it’s important. I’m 100 percent sure that our fans love to see him extend.
So it gives a positive vibe towards the club, maybe a positive vibe we might even not need, but it’s always good to have positive vibes instead of negative vibes. On the other hand, Mo performed so well, the club performed so well, with you guys only talking about their contracts. But I think it’s only positive, because if you want to sign new players or players that want to extend here yes or no, it’s always positive to see that one of our star players over the last seven or eight years made the choice to extend his contract.”
Story continues below this ad
He said the Salah flex finally signified ambition. “It also shows maybe how ambitious this club is, so not only Mo but also the owners and the ones that came in last season. We are really ambitious to keep performing the way this club has performed for so many years now,” Slot explained.
