Liverpool have two solutions, and they add up to a problem.
Their best player might be having the best season of his career. They’ve only dropped seven total points from 19 matches across the Premier League and the Champions League. And so that player is getting interviewed after all the matches that he’s played an outsize role in helping Liverpool win.
During the postmatch chats, the player is inevitably asked some kind of question like: “Your team is in first place, you’ve just scored and assisted a goal in a match for the 700th time in your career, so why do you only have half-a-year left on your contract?” And then the player says something like: “We’re almost in December, I haven’t received any offer to stay at the club, so probably I’m more out than in.”
Or, say: “Probably until now this is the last [Manchester] City game I will play for Liverpool so I was just going to enjoy it. The atmosphere was incredible so I will enjoy every second here. Hopefully we just win the league and will see what will happen.”
And that’s just in the last two weeks!
Mohamed Salah is on pace to shatter the Premier League record for goals+assists in a single season. Liverpool are on pace to finish the season with 95 points, which would tie for the fifth-best total in league history. And yet Salah could theoretically sign a pre-contract with another club outside of England on Jan. 1.
What might happen? What should happen? Let’s take a look at the situation from three different angles: for Liverpool, for Salah, and for everyone else.