Liverpool stars Sadio Mane and Mohamed Salah both reportedly wanted £400,000-a-week to pen new deals at Anfield. Mane looks set to call time on his Reds career this summer and head for Bayern Munich, while Salah has just one year remaining on his current deal and could also eventually be on his way if his demands aren’t met.
Liverpool have become one of the best teams in Europe under manager Jurgen Klopp, who joined the club in 2015. In the last three years they have won the Champions League and Premier League, and also lifted the FA Cup and Carabao Cup.
And Mane and Salah can take huge credit for much of their success. The blockbuster stars have proved to be inspired signings and have been nothing short of sensational during their Liverpool careers.
This past season the duo racked-up an incredible 54 goals and 21 assists between them in all competitions as the Reds reached the Champions League final and narrowly missed out on landing the Premier League title.
But Klopp could soon be facing life without either of them in his attack. The German has been desperate for them to commit their futures to the club and has attempted to pin them down to new long-term contracts. But neither has been willing to put pen-to-paper.
According to The Mirror, Mane and Salah see their next contracts as the biggest and most important of their careers and demanded the giant wages. But the Reds are not willing to break their pay structure.
Liverpool are instead happier to offer bigger bonuses for trophies. But when top players can earn big money at the likes of Manchester City, Manchester United and Paris Saint-Germain, they are perhaps less willing than ever to accept a lower base salary.
Mane has already reportedly agreed to move to Bayern, where he will earn more money than he would if he stuck around at Anfield. And Salah has been tipped to move to one of the Reds’ Premier League rivals.
In the past, Liverpool have allowed players to head for the exit when their wage demands have become too steep. Emre Can left for Juventus in 2018 on a free transfer, before Gini Wijnaldum departed for PSG last summer when his contract ended.
