WHEN Mo Salah whipped off his shirt the other day and showed off that impressive six pack, I thought one thing — hope my missus isn’t watching.
It was the same for most blokes up and down the country. I didn’t have muscles like that even in my prime as a player. We didn’t do weights in my day.
As well as giving the ladies a treat, that exhibition of his amazing abs also underlines what a fantastic athlete Salah is, as well as one of Liverpool’s all-time greats and still a formidable footballer.
Even at 32, if you gave him a three-year contract next summer, he isn’t going to suddenly fall off a cliff with his fitness or his play.
But if I were in Arne Slot’s place, as his manager at Anfield, I’d be thinking that Salah is gone after this season, no matter what cryptic messages he puts out to muddy the waters over his future.
If he hasn’t signed by now, then to me Salah is gone, despite those comments about the club not coming up with a new offer like he did.
Let’s be honest, next summer he could head over to Saudi Arabia and pocket a £100million signing-on fee alone. And that’s without his wages on top. His transfer market worth must be £80-100m.
Last summer Liverpool could have got more than that but the move to Saudi’s Pro League didn’t come off — that surprised me.
Now of course, in the age of the Bosman free transfer, a lot of what Liverpool would have collected will go Salah’s way.
He has a choice. If he is purely football driven, stay at Anfield. But even for someone like him, if clubs are dangling crazy figures in front of you, it becomes difficult to turn down.
FOOTBALL FREE BETS AND SIGN UP DEALS
He could have gone last year but was probably thinking that most of the £100m or even £200m Liverpool would have got for him, will be going his way in 12 months’ time, so he is sitting it out.
In some ways if he wins the Premier League title again with Liverpool this season, it seems like a fitting way to go out.
You have to be honest and think to yourself that this uncertainty has been dragging on for so long now that it makes things even more certain. That he is leaving.
The carefully-scripted speeches, designed to keep people guessing, are just there to stop him burning his bridges with the fans.
He doesn’t want to go out in bad faith with supporters — and I get that.
Next summer he can leave and then sit down and write his own cheque for a deal to take him to Saudi.
He could go to any club in the world — Real Madrid maybe? But even they would struggle to compete with the money on offer in the Middle East.
And imagine what a superstar he would be out there.
It suits him as a Muslim, for starters, and to have players like him around at any club would be incredible for others in the squad.
A fantastic example to set for young hopeful pros
Harry Redknapp
Younger players can look at guys like Salah and Cristiano Ronaldo, watch how they train, that they don’t eat rubbish, don’t drink, don’t abuse their bodies.
They can watch and learn what is required if you want to be like Mo Salah. A fantastic example to set for young hopeful pros.
It’s a world away from when I started out in management at Bournemouth. We were talking £200-a-week contracts back then, long before the advent of the Bosman Ruling.
When I was at West Ham we sold Rio Ferdinand to Leeds for £18m — a lot of money back then.
The chairman, Terry Brown, said to me he thought it would be one of the last big transfers because with the incoming Bosman Ruling, all players would choose to run their contracts down and leave for free.
That was his belief and you can understand his feelings at the time, yet the transfers have just got crazier.
If nothing else, Salah leaving England next summer would be a great relief to blokes everywhere who have been sucking their stomachs in since those pictures of his rack came out.
4
BEING FRANK
IF I could offer one piece of advice to Frank Lampard on his return to management with Coventry it would be to get a wise, old head on his staff.
Not me, I’ve had it, but someone that is a little bit more experienced than him, that he can talk to.
When I went to Portsmouth as manager, I brought in Jim Smith. I was an experienced manager myself by then but he was still brilliant for me to have around.
Frank has got a difficult job on at Coventry and to have an older man on the team to sound out would be a huge benefit. But fair play to Frank for coming back into the game. He has got so much to offer.
His football knowledge is immense and his reputation as a player, and the way he carried himself as a player, will hopefully rub off on the squad.
It’s about getting the right job. For example, people are waiting for Wayne Rooney to fail in every job.
But he has gone to Plymouth and although it is a big club, they don’t have money.
They just about stayed up last season. Wayne’s up against it from the start. Yet I have sat down with him and spoken about football and he has the makings of a terrific manager.
You just need the right club at the right time.
4
TRACTOR NOISE
WATCHING Ipswich this season makes me think they are the best placed to spring a surprise and stay up.
The way they play, the energy, the atmosphere at Portman Road, especially last Sunday against Manchester United, really warmed me to them.
Kieran McKenna has a good side there and comes across so well.
I’m rooting for them.
