02 Apr 2026 09:41:56
This might be an unpopular topic of conversation, and apologies if it's been covered elsewhere, but can someone ITK please explain to me why we are letting Salah go for nothing in the summer?
Don't get me wrong, I do think it's the right time for him to move on. I also don't begrudge him being allowed to leave as he seems fits and on good terms given everything he's done for the club. Taking emotion out of it though, this is still a business and Salah is still a contracted sellable asset that would command at least £30M in today's market, and that's being conservative.
Even if we let him go for almost nothing so he can go to where we wants, why would we not get something, anything for him? Even £5M would offset the wage bill for a couple of weeks so why not? Really don't understand that one.
{Ed025's Note - i have been saying that since it was announced Westwood..
02 Apr 2026 10:17:39
How much money is the increase in ticket prices going to generate over the season? Could that have been covered by the possible small transfer fee?
02 Apr 2026 10:21:28
A host of things I imagine, the club get him off the books immediately. If he's on £330k a week post tax, you're paying NI on this, you're also paying a loyalty bonus if a bid comes in for him, you're requiring a club to pay £30m if that comes in at the end of the window, you're paying an extra 8 weeks' wages and national insurance. We probably think he's disrupted the team a lot with his attitude at times.
It gives a pathway to immediately sign someone or promote, with the idea that the space out there is available to play in.
(I am thinking of when Real Madrid kept Ronaldo on when they bought Bale on the proviso they were moving Ronaldo on).
I think the time to sell Salah was when Saudi clubs were offering stupid money for him and we didn't renew Bobby and Mane instead.
02 Apr 2026 10:37:46
If we would have sold him then Phil, we probably wouldn't have won the league last season.
02 Apr 2026 10:45:39
At the end of the day he has proven to be exceptional value for money. He has more than justified the money spent on him in fees and wages.
02 Apr 2026 10:45:43
I am certainly not ITK, but from a business perspective, I would imagine Salah has agreed to give up some portion of bonuses, image rights etc, basically something the club would be entitled to cover.
I'd imagine it's more of a mutual agreement whereby the club won't go through a sale process and Salah agrees to minimise additional costs to the club. I'm sure the finance egg heads have crunched the numbers.
02 Apr 2026 10:46:50
I look at it as a testimonial, let him reap the rewards of a free transfer for services rendered.
02 Apr 2026 10:56:04
At a guess, the club realised in January they couldn't engineer a Saudi sale. Without Saudi, there's unlikely to be any club that would pay a fee and take on his salary. So they probably chose certainty of mutually agreeing to cut his contract short, so they can avoid a disruptive saga over the summer, and can plan with clarity now.
It's difficult to put a price on certainty in the Game of Transfers.
02 Apr 2026 11:04:13
I'm pretty sure the financial eggheads know what they are doing, and this was the best, and easiest, way forward for everyone involved.
02 Apr 2026 11:25:47
Given his age and form this season, nobody's going to be willing to part with more than £20 million for Mo. Covering his wages and bonuses for the next year could cost considerably more than that. Considering his service to the club and the breakdown in the relationship with Slot, getting him off the wage book asap is definitely the best business move.
If you keep him on the books and fail to engineer a move, you're down another 30 million next season for a player who's adding very little, taking up a valuable space, and possibly disrupting the squad. It's a no-brainer really.
02 Apr 2026 11:32:10
Any chance that the 2 year deal he signed was always going to just be 1 year but the '2 years' was to avoid the incessant questions to Salah and the club all year (like last year with VVD TAA and Salah) about 'what happens next year blah blah?'
Maybe an off-book agreement to avoid the media circus?
Maybe total nonsense, as I know nothing about contract law etc, but it certainly has stopped all the questions.
02 Apr 2026 11:56:22
I may be wrong, but club has just said they accept his decision to leave at the end of the season and value his contributions. There is nothing about him going for free to other clubs.
I don't know any clubs around that can match 400k a week, so my belief is he is moving to America and FSG are probably co-purchasing a club in MLS after the WC and he will be the star player signing.
FSG were trying to buy a team in Europe and were not able to do so. They probably shift focus back to America.
02 Apr 2026 12:11:55
Cafu, I believe the contract is terminated at 30/6/26, and therefore Salah is a free agent.
02 Apr 2026 13:11:45
It's a strange 1 alright.
02 Apr 2026 13:14:52
Maybe there was a clause in the contract he's signed last year where either side or both could back out after a year?
02 Apr 2026 13:23:27
From what I have read, if true, he has a £20m loyalty bonus that he has waived if he can go at the end of the season.
02 Apr 2026 13:31:21
Also, we save 20 on his wages alone, so apparently that is like getting a fee for him. 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
{Ed025's Note - just getting shut of him is a reward in itself JLC, but he has year to go on his contract so why not put him up for sale mate?..i thought that was the whole point of giving him a 2 year deal last season..
02 Apr 2026 14:45:01
The thing is, you can put all your players up for sale but that doesn't mean:
1) you'll get any offers
2) the offers will be acceptable
3) the player wants to go to 'acceptable offer club'
It's much more complicated than any of us pretend to understand.
Maybe Salah has said, "I'm not going to another club under any circumstances".
Answer this: why would any other club pay even £5 transfer fee this year when they will have to cover his contracted wages and probably offer more, when they can wait 12 months and he's out of contract?
02 Apr 2026 14:49:19
I do not believe for a second that Mo has a desire to play for a Saudi club, so the temptation of a mega-offer is a red herring and has never been on the table.
It is a lazy assumption that because Mo is from the Middle East, (and highly sought after by Saudi clubs), he will sign for one of the Saudi clubs.
02 Apr 2026 15:24:16
Just to throw the cat amongst the pigeons, maybe it's been handled this way and announced now to take the burden off an incoming manager.
Not an easy thing to deal with as your first act as manager, selling a club icon, but if it was mutually agreed between Salah and the club already, we might as well announce it now so that no negativity can be attached to a new manager.
Just a theory, of course.
02 Apr 2026 15:36:06
The club was saving on his wages regardless with a sale. It benefited Salah more than the club. We should have got a fee, he was paid more than enough since he arrived at the club. Salah will get a handsome signing on fee elsewhere.
Hughes and Edwards are journey men and have fleeced the club. Wages, fees, new contracts. Then the Salah announcement. I'm sure Salah and his agent were more than satisfied.
{Ed025's Note - doing hand stands and break dancing i would suggest Ron..
02 Apr 2026 15:01:53
Ed025, he's not worth anything though, by comparison, the wage bill, bonuses and loyalty bonus is probably worth twice what you'd get for him. Saudi are the only ones willing to pay anything over £20 mil after the season he's had and I don't think he has interest in moving there.
If rumours of a £20m loyalty bonus are true then why not let him go now rather than waste time spending the summer trying to make a deal where you're only going to break even anyway, and have to pay his wages the whole time? Cut your losses now and it gives you one less thing to worry about.
{Ed025's Note - i can see what you are saying Chewy but i thought his new 2 year deal was to stop him going for nothing mate ala Trent..
02 Apr 2026 16:55:50
Ed25 as soon as the whole Salah outburst happened esp. with him saying the club were trying to sell him behind his back, I knew he was outta here. It had become untenable. For me, i'm fine with it.
As for his final year, players have done that multiple times in the past so again, I don't see what the fuss is about esp. with the amount in wages that will be saved by him foregoing his final year.
{Ed025's Note - i just thought you would have got a fee for him Oli, otherwise why offer a 2 year deal?..
02 Apr 2026 18:48:18
It's a terrible decision by the club. We must be very very comfortable financially.
They're not bothered about losing players like Trent, Salah, Ibou on frees.
They're not bothered about sacking a sinking manager mid season to save the European places.
They're not bothered about signing players in January for problem areas like right back or defensive mid to attempt to save our downfall.
We must be absolutely shedded, simple as that.
02 Apr 2026 19:18:15
Spotmon Ed25
I said the other day that it would be nice for players, and some players that is, to be allowed to leave on their own terms, then I had a re-think, and thought, fuck'em, these guys are paid handsomely, so much so thatbtheir great great grand kids will be sorted financially, so yeah, the club should actually get a fee for them, whatever that fee is.
We pitched about TAA leaving for nothing last year, and now its like because its Mo, its OK.
What if Konate doesn't extend? What if VVD hangs around for a year and then then leaves? Alison too. Robbo could go on a free as well.
Its just not good business sense.
Lime i said above, I was more peaved that TAA was leaving for nothing, than him actually going. At least we squeezed 10m for him from RM
Mo has been fantastic, and we could easily get 30m for him, easily.
{Ed025's Note - i dont suspect any of these players will be pushing trolleys around the Tesco car park to supplement their pensions JLC, if you can get money for them then thats the way to go mate..
02 Apr 2026 19:22:25
Ed25 indeed, that is a valid question BUT if he doesn't want to go to Saudi and we can't get what we want for him because no one will pay that then, what can you do?
Also, remember that it could also be a case of both parties recognizing what they have done for each other and just have a clean, mutual breakup. That also happens all the time.
It is not always about money or transfer fees. Sometimes, it could be a lot more complicated than that.
{Ed025's Note - there is not much in life that happens without money being involved Oli mate..
02 Apr 2026 20:45:49
Ed025 when someone decides to support a successful super club thousands of miles away on an illegal stream then it's all free mate.
02 Apr 2026 22:39:57
E2025, you're 100% correct, that's definitely the reason for the 2 year deal, unfortunately, his unbelievable dip in form has completely wiped out any chance of turning a profit off that contract though. Best to just cut your losses.
{Ed025's Note - i can see both sides of the argument Chewy, i just think you are being rinsed on this one mate, player power along with greedy agents are taking the piss if you ask me and these contracts they sign are not worth the paper they are printed on..
03 Apr 2026 09:09:42
Thanks all for responses. Certainly some interesting ones there.
Just his name and pulling power alone is enough to justify a fee, even if his form isn't, and let's be honest, his season has only been bad by his own standards. He's still got 27 goals and assists in all appearances so far this season. If that was an English player, you'd be looking at £100M.
Personally, I'd have just said he's free to go where he chooses and just put a nominal figure out there that pretty much anyone could pay, even if it was just £10M. Anyone that could cover his wages could also cover that, and likely make it back in short sales anyway, so everyone would win.
Just seems very amateurish from the club.
03 Apr 2026 09:14:45
Salah's career has shown he is one of the top players to ever grace the PL.
One bad season does not decide that nobody will pay.
Yes, we won't get 80M, but that's more due to his age than his ability.
He goes to a slower league, and he'll be the "old" Mo again.
Class is permanent....
We could easily get 30m to 40m for him...
Maybe some serious questions should be asked about this decision.
04 Apr 2026 05:22:59
Perhaps it was just out of respect for everything he has done for the club. Maybe it's the exception that proves the rule and, for this particular player, not about finance from the club's point of view.
{Ed001's Note - no they didn't, they came from Chelsea and Leicester's academies, nothing to do with ours.}