Mohamed Salah's Conditions for Saudi Move

Mohamed Salah has signalled he is ready to swap Anfield for Saudi Arabia – but only on his terms, and they are anything but small.

The Liverpool legend, whose departure was confirmed weeks ago, has “granted approval” to a move to the Saudi Pro League, according to reports in Saudi outlet Marebpress. Yet any deal will only happen if three major conditions are met, underlining that even at 33, Salah is negotiating from a position of power.

This is no quiet exit for one of Liverpool’s greatest modern players. The fallout has already dragged in a former team-mate, a club icon turned pundit, and the manager whose short reign appears to have pushed Salah towards the door.

Salah sets his price for Saudi switch

Salah leaves Anfield one year before the end of his £400,000-per-week deal, after a bruising season on and off the pitch. Liverpool stumbled to a fifth-place finish, a campaign overshadowed by the tragic death of Diogo Jota and a collapse in form that ultimately cost Arne Slot his job.

Behind the scenes, Salah’s relationship with Slot frayed badly. Those disagreements, Dejan Lovren now claims, were decisive. The Croatian insists that had Slot been removed earlier, Salah would not have walked away from Liverpool this summer.

That door is closed now. The question is where he goes next.

Saudi clubs have circled for months. Sources have long expected Salah to be offered not just a colossal salary, but one of the biggest contracts in sport and an ambassadorial role to promote football in the kingdom. Marebpress now report that an official offer has already landed on Salah’s table – and been found wanting.

The proposal, they claim, fell short of the money he had on offer from Saudi Arabia before he renewed with Liverpool. Salah’s response was clear: he will move only if the package reflects his “status and marketing value.”

His demands are threefold. First, an annual salary and financial benefits that match his global standing. Second, a deal of two or three years to give him stability at the back end of his career. Third, and crucially, a club with a serious sporting project – one capable of competing for major titles, not simply making up the numbers.

If Saudi Arabia wants Salah, it cannot just buy the shirt sales. It has to sell him a vision.

Lovren takes aim at Carragher over Salah exit

While Liverpool press ahead with plans to replace their former talisman – with Yan Diomande identified as their top target – the debate over Salah’s exit rages on.

Many supporters would have preferred him to stay until 2027. Instead, they are watching one of the club’s greatest forwards walk away under a cloud, and the arguments are spilling into public view.

At the heart of it now stands Dejan Lovren, Salah’s close friend and former defensive partner, who has launched a fierce defence of the Egyptian and a pointed attack on Jamie Carragher.

Speaking to Winwin, Lovren did not hold back.

“The way they treated him this season is not harsh. It’s disgusting,” he said. “Why didn’t they talk about him like this for the past eight or nine years? Tell me… OK, one season, and then he’s the target again. There are so many other issues.”

Lovren accused certain pundits of using Salah as a lightning rod for attention.

“He’s being really heavily criticised. Some pundits do it just to attract attention, maybe because they haven’t succeeded in other areas of their lives, so now they need to perform well… especially Carragher, he says whatever he wants. I always said he should tell him this to his face, say all these things to Mo to his face.

“He’ll never say that. Because I know he never will, because he never said it to me. He’s talked badly about me too, but he never said that to me anyway. You know, he’s just performing on TV and he gets paid for it, so he needs to perform this way.”

The Croatian then turned his fire on Slot and the way the club handled the situation.

“I don’t think it’s the management (that pushed Salah to leave). I think it’s just one person, and I think it’s just the manager. They didn’t have a good relationship. Let’s put it simply. With Klopp, he had a really good relationship.

“It wasn’t always perfect, but they knew each other very well, let’s say that too, and they trusted each other, they liked each other, and Mo gave everything on the pitch for Klopp, and Klopp gave him that trust. But (with Slot) it was the opposite. It’s that simple, and everyone knows it because when you look at the previous eight or nine seasons, he did really well.”

Lovren did not stop there. He suggested Salah was left isolated in a dressing room that failed to share the burden when things went wrong.

“There are other players who should also take responsibility and say, ‘yes, this is my fault’, but you know, some players never came forward.

“There was mismanagement; internally, they didn’t handle it well. They didn’t handle it well. Even if you have some problems, you have to talk about it in the dressing room, and like I said, Mo never felt that support. He was always the front-page headline, ‘Ah, it’s Mohamed Salah, don’t be surprised.’ I mean… it’s a deep-seated issue.”

So Salah prepares for a new chapter, likely under a desert sky, with a fortune on offer and a league desperate for his star power. Liverpool, meanwhile, must rebuild without the man who defined an era – and live with the question Lovren has now thrown into the open: did they really do everything they could to keep him?