Liverpool have reportedly hit a stumbling block in their contract negotiations with Mohamed Salah.Regardless of whether or not the Reds go onto the win the Premier League and Champions League this season, the European giants are blessed with one of the world's best players - and securing his future is simply vital.Salah has publicly expressed his desire to stay at Anfield for the rest of his career, but the situation is far more complex than simply signing on the dotted line and the protracted nature of the discussions has illustrated exactly that.
Major Salah contract update
Besides, Liverpool fans were dealt a crushing blow to their hopes of anchoring Salah to Merseyside with a contract renewal when Fabrizio Romano gave an eye-opening update on the conversations this week.
The revered reporter tweeted on Friday night that 'Salah and his agent have no intention to accept current new contract bid from Liverpool' with negotiations for a new deal having broken down since December.
Elaborating in his write-up for the Guardian, Romano explained that Liverpool consider the December offer to be a good package whereas Salah believes that it is not illustrative of his worth to the club.
And with the story boiled down to the fact that Salah "will not sign a new deal unless offered improved terms," the Anfield faithful better sit tight to see whether or not Liverpool upgrade their proposal.
Do Liverpool rip up their wage structure?
However, no matter what the Liverpool chiefs decide upon, the debate at the centre of the Salah contract saga is the extent to which the club should disrupt their wage structure for such exceptional circumstances.
We don't know the answer, the chances are you don't know the answer and maybe the Anfield bosses don't know the answer either, but the balance of Liverpool's payroll will surely now be majorly impacted by any renewal.
So, on the back of such a major development in the future of Liverpool's star player, we thought that the time was right to take a closer look at how the wages are shaping up for the men's first-team at the club.
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Liverpool's 2021/22 player wages
To do so, and in the interest of consistency, we've called upon spotrac data to see where Salah ranks in the current pay pyramid and duly imagine what a world in which he signs a new contract might look like.
The exceptions are that wage data was not available for Luis Diaz and Harvey Elliott, and we've updated Andrew Robertson's figure based on the reported earnings linked to his own renewal last summer.
Therefore, without further ado, be sure to check out the 2021/22 wages of the Liverpool men's first-team down below to see how they're shaping up amidst the Salah negotiations.
23. Caoimhin Kelleher - £6,000-a-week
22. Curtis Jones - £7,500-a-week
21. Adrian - £58,000-a-week
=19. Konstantinos Tsimikas - £60,000-a-week
Soccer Football - Champions League - Liverpool Training - AXA Training Centre, Liverpool, Britain - December 6, 2021 Liverpool's Kostas Tsimikas during training Action Images via Reuters/Molly Darlington
=19. Divock Origi - £60,000-a-week
18. Ibrahima Konate - £70,000-a-week
=16. Takumi Minamino - £75,000-a-week
=16. Joe Gomez - £75,000-a-week
15. Diogo Jota - £90,385-a-week
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=12. Joel Matip - £100,000-a-week
=12. Sadio Mane - £100,000-a-week
=12. Andrew Robertson - £100,000-a-week (per Sports Illustrated)
=10. Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain - £120,000-a-week
=10. Naby Keita - £120,000-a-week
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=8. James Milner - £140,000-a-week
=8. Jordan Henderson - £140,000-a-week
7. Alisson Becker - £150,000-a-week
=4. Fabinho - £180,000-a-week
=4. Roberto Firmino - £180,000-a-week
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=4. Trent Alexander-Arnold - £180,000-a-week
=2. Mohamed Salah - £200,000-a-week
=2. Thiago Alcantara - £200,000-a-week
- Virgil van Dijk - £220,000-a-week
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Salah due a pay rise
So, it's not as though Salah isn't already earning a pretty penny on Merseyside, but £200,000-a-week - despite seeming like a fortune to us mere mortals - isn't reflective of his standing in world football.
When you consider that Salah might well be the greatest male player in the sport right now, it's certainly eye-opening to see that he's not even the highest-paid player at Liverpool.
Marry that to the fact that players like Kevin De Bruyne (£400k-a-week), David de Gea (£375k-a-week) and Romelu Lukaku (£325k-a-week) are touted to be on significantly higher wages and you can see where Salah is coming from.
Soccer Football - Premier League - Liverpool v Leicester City - Anfield, Liverpool, Britain - February 10, 2022 Liverpool's Mohamed Salah during the warm up before the match REUTERS/Craig Brough EDITORIAL USE ONLY. No use with unauthorized audio, video, data, fixture lists, club/league logos or 'live' services. Online in-match use limited to 75 images, no video emulation. No use in betting, games or single club /league/player publications. Please contact your account representative for further details.
As such, while it remains to be seen just how much Salah is demanding and how far Liverpool are willing to bend, you can bet your bottom dollar that you haven't seen the last of what could be a history-altering set of negotiations.
But if Liverpool are going to rip up their wage strategy for any player, then you can't help thinking that Salah is that very player. For now, though, we'll just have to wait and see.