Mo Salah has said this season will be his “last year” at Liverpool.
Speaking after Liverpool’s 3-0 Premier League win at Manchester United – where Salah had a hand in all three goals – the forward said: “I had a good summer and had a long time to myself to try to stay positive.
“As you know, it’s my last year at the club.
“I just want to enjoy it and I don’t want to think about it. I feel like I’m free to play football and then we’ll see what happens next year.”
However, Sky Sports pundit Jamie Carragher has predicted Salah might yet stay on.
“I would be very surprised if Salah isn’t playing for Liverpool next season,” said Carragher.
Salah set up Luis Diaz’s double and then scored a third to silence Old Trafford on Super Sunday, before appearing to confirm his Liverpool exit at the end of this season when interviewed post-match.
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He continued: “Coming into the game, I said it could be the last time [I play here with Liverpool].
“No-one at the club has spoken to me about contracts, so I’m just like: ‘OK, I’m playing my last season’ and see what happens at the end of the season.
“It’s not up to me, but nobody’s talked to me from the club. We will see.”
Salah, whose contract expires next summer, has been at Anfield since the summer of 2017, when he signed from Roma for a then club-record fee.
Will Salah really leave Liverpool next summer? The Sky Sports pundits have their say
Jamie Carragher: “I think Mo Salah is obsessed, like Ronaldo, with records and longevity. Most of us think, when you get to 35, you’re done in football. The way that lad looks after himself, I think he’s thinking of playing until he’s 40, or late 30s at least. I don’t think a Saudi situation is on the cards next season. He’s too good. He’s playing in the best league in the world, for one of the biggest clubs in the world.
“Whether it’s in another season or two seasons’ time, he’s along Kenny Dalglish and Steven Gerrard as the top players to play for Liverpool. He’s possibly the best wide player we’ve seen in the Premier League, even if hasn’t got the medals that maybe some others have got. Of course you fight to keep him. It’s not about throwing money at him. It’s not what you’ve done in the past, it’s what you’re doing in the future.
“When you get into your mid-30s, you can’t do what you did before – but he might be different. Of course Liverpool want to keep him and Virgil van Dijk, but it will probably be about wages. Are they still on the same wages because, in the next two or three years, will they still be the same players? That’s the debate that will be had.
“I would be very surprised if Salah isn’t playing for Liverpool next season because I think he’ll want to blitz every record in the club’s history.”
Roy Keane: “He’s in control of that [his contract]. I know clubs have policies about letting players’ contracts run down when they get to 31, 32, but he’ll decide what he wants to do.
“They’ll obviously have to offer him a contract – he’s their main player. But put it this way: he will have plenty of options.”