Liverpool Have No Cause for Concern Over Mohamed Salah's Recent Comments

It's all come a bit out of the blue really, hasn't it?

Just five months on from Liverpool securing their maiden Premier League crown, with talisman Mohamed Salah wearing a smile as wide as the River Mersey as he celebrated with his teammates, the Egyptian is now rumoured to be unhappy at Anfield.

Speculation surrounding the two-time Premier League Golden Boot winner's future began to circulate following his comments regarding a potential move to La Liga behemoths Barcelona and Real Madrid.

A flippant comment that was taken out of context? Possibly. Though when friend and former teammate Mohamed Aboutrika decided to throw petrol on the flickering flame by confirming Salah was unhappy on Merseyside, the rumour mill well and truly went into overdrive.

Anyone remotely associated with the club will undoubtedly be unsettled at the very least by the comments made, but y'know what? They shouldn't be.

First thing's first, let's get the simple logistics out of the way. The 28-year-old is under contract at the club until 2023, meaning Liverpool are under absolutely no pressure whatsoever to thrash out a deal with either Barça, Real Madrid or Salah himself.

Because the Egypt international has two-and-a-half years left on his current deal, were the Reds to decide to offload the former Chelsea man they'd be able to command an astronomical amount of money - something neither of the Spanish pair have.

Anyway, that's the simple maths out of the way - and in truth we've already put to bed the ridiculous notion that Salah could be heading for Camp Nou or the Santiago Bernabeu any time soon, but you didn't come here to read a boring article saying 'they can't afford him, it's rubbish', so let's plough on.

Were either Barça or Real to generate enough cash to be able to afford a player with 86 goals in 121 Premier League games for Liverpool to his name, not only would Jurgen Klopp likely be handed a transfer warchest to find an adequate replacement (and he's not too bad in the transfer market), they'd also be pretty well equipped without him.

The Liverpool team of 2020/21 isn't the same side that Salah joined in 2017/18. In the Egyptian's first season at Anfield, no player even scored half the 32 league goals he bagged in his maiden campaign - they were far from a one-man band, but the over-reliance on him was perhaps the reason their wait for a title stretched to 30 years.

Since the 2017/18 season, Sadio Mane has scored just one league goal fewer than Salah in the two full seasons played, while summer recruit Diogo Jota has added some much needed depth to a frontline that - while admittedly has looked brilliant in the past few seasons - needed support from the rest of the squad.

Since signing from Roma in June 2017, Salah has failed to feature in just seven Premier League games for Klopp's side, with the Reds bagging a total of 13 goals in those fixtures, proving they can play without him should they opt to part ways.

There is, of course, the possibility that Liverpool get stuck in the middle of these two scenarios - their forward is desperate to leave, causes issues in the camp and doesn't want to extend his stay beyond 2023, though neither Real nor Barça can afford him, leaving Liverpool with a big problem.

However, this is arguably the most unrealistic outcome of them all. Despite his recent comments about being unhappy at not being made captain against Midtjylland and dropping to the bench for the Reds' clash with Crystal Palace at the weekend, Salah was introduced in the second half and looked sharper than ever.

There was no sign of a player who'd spat his dummy out or was desperate not to be at the club, he looked brilliant and capped his performance with two good goals.

So, if you're a Liverpool fan and you're enduring sleepless nights over the future of one of the best players in the game - don't bother yourself, it'll be just fine.