Mo Salah and Virgil van Dijk have agreed to contract extensions after Liverpool promised to SELL Darwin Núñez in the next transfer window.

As he now closes in on a two-year agreement with Liverpool, that has helped make this decision even more straightforward. It’s likely why those at the club have been comfortable enough to leave things without a resolution until April.

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It was back in late November when Salah broke the career-long habit of speaking to reporters in a post-match mixed zone area. Only twice previously had the Egypt captain done so, making good on promises after reaching the 40-goal mark in his first season, back in 2018 and then a little over a year later, when celebrating a Champions League triumph.

So when Salah agreed to give a few minutes of his time to just a handful of publications that included the ECHO, fresh from scoring goals 11 and 12 of the campaign, a rain-soaked St Mary’s did not seem like the most obvious place for part three of his media address. Clearly, as the wind and rain battered the team coach to his left, he had something he wanted the wider world to know.

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“Well, we are almost in December and I haven’t received any offers yet to stay in the club, [so] I’m probably more out than in,” Salah conceded. “You know I have been in the club for many years.

“There is no club like this. But in the end it is not in my hands. As I said before, it is December and I haven’t received anything yet about my future. I love the fans. The fans love me. In the end it is not in my hands or the fans’ hands. Let’s wait and see. Of course [no offer is disappointing], yeah.”

The comments sparked widespread debate and the situation was included as part of the Monday Night Football coverage the following evening, with Jamie Carragher labelling the timing of the statement as “selfish”, saying: “I am desperate for them to meet in the middle. But I must say, I am very disappointed in Mo Salah.

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“That interview, Liverpool have got Real Madrid in midweek and they’ve got Manchester City at the weekend – that’s the story for Liverpool right now. The most important thing is Liverpool winning the Premier League. That is more important than any of those players, and if he continues to put comments out, or his agent keeps putting tweets out, that’s selfish. That’s thinking about themselves and not the football club.”

It led to a frosty exchange between the pair on social media, with Salah claiming the 2005 Champions League winner was “obsessed” with him. Carragher’s reply to the news on Wednesday that a two-year agreement is now close harked back to that interaction, but was delivered in much happier tones.

“The obsession continues,” tweeted the Reds legend, followed by a heart emoji in a reply to Salah’s pictures from Wednesday’s session at the AXA Training Centre. It is the news supporters have long been pining for.

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If few things of what has become a complex and fascinating impasse have ever been clear, what crystalised after that brief chat at Southampton was Salah’s desire to see what was first on offer at Liverpool before feeling the need to look externally around world football.

The ECHO was told by numerous sources back in September that the 32-year-old was desperate to stay on Merseyside and extend his time with the Reds. The lack of intensity and glamour of the Saudi Pro League was cited as a key reason for why he didn’t want to leave, alongside the fact that he is settled in the North West with his wife Magi and two kids, Makka and Kayan.

“He’s speaking about his daughter being from Liverpool,” one source explained. “She is one of the city’s people in his eyes.” Another made reference to how Sadio Mane had played himself out of wider prominence after moving to Al-Nassr from Bayern Munich, remarking: “Salah doesn’t want to be like Sadio in Saudi Arabia. Even if it means more money.”

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It’s thought that Salah earns around £1m a week when all his endorsements and commercial agreements are accounted for, so remuneration has never been the aim of the game for Salah, even if a desire to be properly recognised for his standing within the world game has been.

The idea of Saudi Arabia first came into focus in the summer of 2023 when Fenway Sports Group president Mike Gordon politely declined the offer of up to £150m from Al-Ittihad as the European transfer window prepared to close.

Since then, the Pro League has been wafted around as a potential way out of Anfield for Salah and the division’s interest in bringing one of the most celebrated Muslim athletes on the planet has not wavered, even if Liverpool have given no encouragement.

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Even as recently as last week, reports suggested the SPL hadn’t given up hope of signing Salah as a free agent but that now looks like something of a pipedream where this summer is concerned.

The Pro League could, in time, be a viable option but the focus for now remains on Liverpool, on the Premier League and the Champions League. A Ballon d’Or dream burns brightly and the aim of knocking down more Anfield records still sustains the 32-year-old after eight largely decorated years.

Over the course of the campaign, though, if Salah’s options have become fewer and farther between, the desire for him to stay with the club he has represented with distinction has only intensified.

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Now up to third in the list of all-time scorers, only Roger Hunt and Ian Rush stand above him, and while the latter’s tally of 346 might be out of reach for a player currently on 243, a further 42 over the remainder of his time with the Reds will see him move above the legendary Hunt. It’s a remarkable prospect but one that is indicative of just how good and consistent Salah has been as a Liverpool player.

Numerous sources in Egypt have told the ECHO that a two-year extension is imminent, which will be music to the ears of Reds fans who have been eager to see an agreement found for their all-time leading scorer of the Premier League era.

It will eventually bring an end to months of speculation and discourse that Liverpool, as a whole, have done superbly to not let affect their Premier League title charge, particularly given Virgil van Dijk and Trent Alexander-Arnold have been in the same boat. As things stand, the expectation that Van Dijk, like Salah, will pen an extension remains, while Alexander-Arnold will seek pastures new for Real Madrid.

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One of the major sticking points, it is thought, is Liverpool’s devotion to the data and the careful, risk-averse nature that permeates through the club at times like this. As FSG’s CEO of football, it is Michael Edwards’s job to cut out the emotion and make strategic, long-term decisions with a cool head and a cold heart.

And the mountain of data available showing that players generally tend to drop off the older they get was surely making something of a compelling case against offering Salah, 33 in June, the sort of contract that would cost the club between £17m and £20m a year.

For a club whose wage bill remains the second biggest in the Premier League behind only Manchester City, a misstep at this level could be costly both financially and in a sporting sense. Getting it wrong might set them back years.

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Thirty-two goals and 22 assists, however, have done enough to convince that Salah should be treated as a unique case and the broad agreement, like in 2022, has almost certainly been reached in the belief that he will continue to post these sorts of figures for the coming years. “Mo’s obsessed with numbers,” says one.

The negotiations between the club and Ramy Abbas, the Colombian lawyer who deals with Salah’s affairs, have been ongoing for months back and forth. Such has been the interest that even what appear to be mild social media posts from the solicitor have been jumped on by supporters eager for a breakthrough.

Abbas’s “best player in the world” message about his client in November was speculated upon that Salah wasn’t appreciated as much as he perhaps should be by those in power at Anfield, while the “excellent at his job” remark about Arne Slot in February was also taken as a subtle prod, rightly or wrongly, at those at Liverpool tasked with concluding proceedings around the deal.

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In the sporting director era, those sorts of negotiations go above and beyond the remit of the head coach and while talks have continued with Reds chief Richard Hughes, who inherited the situation last summer, Slot has never hid from the fact he wanted Salah to stay on board for the long haul.

While there have been valid concerns and reasons for Liverpool’s reluctance to simply ask Salah to name his price and sign on the dotted line, the Reds forward has undoubtedly had the sway of public opinion in his favour, with a sign in the Kop urging FSG to “give Mo his dough” in November before Van Dijk and Alexander-Arnold were added to the banner as the campaign continued.

Perhaps through instruction, advice or a belief that rocking the boat further would be harmful to the overall aim of winning the Premier League title, Salah’s outspoken nature on the contract issue has given way to a more circumspect approach in recent months. Media dealings have become more infrequent since the turn of the year and any questions over the contract have been met with a general ‘nothing to update on’ reply.

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Having seen how much the news agenda was set ablaze with his November stoppage at St Mary’s, a more subdued stance has had the desired effect for the team itself in recent months.

When Salah agreed to the numbers on offer three years ago before signing on the Greek island of Mykonos, the informal confirmation that an agreement had been struck came when Abbas messaged then sporting director Julian Ward with a two-word message.

“You’ve won!” proclaimed Abbas before a delegation flew out to Greece to make the biggest deal of all time on Merseyside official. Three years on, it’s difficult to assess who has been the victor this time around, but with the 32-goal Salah expected to remain on board for the next phase of the exciting Slot era, it’s tempting to suggest it is simply Liverpool’s worldwide fanbase.