Let's be frank, the percentage of posts on the forum (and this thread) looking for reasonable discussion are very low, it's mainly venting, b*tching, and massively over-reacting to small sample sizes.
But to your point, I would change your first line to be 'what a great career he's having', because as I indicated in my post, this season his numbers are still elite at 1.0 goals or assists per game. The 'decline' that we are witnessing is based on 4 or 5 games, not the season as a whole, and as it is coupled with returning from an injury, it's not ridiculous to suggest that it is simply a dip in form rather than any sort of decline. In fact, after the last AFCON he also saw a dip in form, and lots of posters on this forum were very keen to shout about it being the start of his decline, and again there were suggestions that we should cash in while we could.
But admittedly this year is different to the last time that he had a year left on his contract. But that is more due to the fact that we will have a new manager rather than the fact that he is older. If we don't think that Salah will fit into the new manager's plans and we can get 100m+ for him, then of course we should consider it. That 100m could be used to buy players more suited to the way that the new manager wants to play. But that is massively caveated to say that the same applies to ANY player in the team, and also by the fact that I can't imagine that many managers would rather manage a team without Salah than a team with him in it.
Given Salah's continued elite performance this season, his excellent durability, his excellent attitude (on and off the field), and the lack of obvious elite replacements in the same price point, I would definitely be offering him an extension this season rather than looking to cash in on him. He has already adapted his game, and he is intelligent enough as a player to continue to do so moving forward. For a club as wealthy as we are, we should be looking to keep our prized assets IMO, especially with some large contracts coming off the books this summer. We have a very promising young squad, but it needs leadership from senior players as well, and I would look for Salah, VVD, and Alisson to provide that leadership over the next few years.
However, if a ridiculous 200m offer was to come in from Saudi Arabia early in the transfer window then I suspect that we would definitely sell. 100m and I think we would probably refuse, so there is a figure somewhere in the middle which is the likely value that FSG place on him.
Of course what Salah wants to do is more important than what offer we get for him. If he wants one last shot at the Champion's League then I don't think he'll accept any offer from Saudi Arabia, so we would have to sell to a European rival instead. PSG are the only likely candidate, and I'm not sure that even they would be willing to put up the money that we would likely be asking for (assuming that he refuses an extension and says that he will leave as a free agent).
So how about we just concentrate on winning the f*cking title, supporting our players that are trying to do so, and then worry about this in June?
Lots of good points and I agree with plenty of it, but I think basically there's a lot of consensus on this thread, including yourself? I've seen considerably more posts saying if a big offer comes in we'll have to consider it, which is the crux of the above, and relatively few saying "he's finished, get rid" (certainly now that the emotions of last night have mellowed out a bit). I mean not everyone will agree on the tipping point in £ terms, and not all of the posts will be as eloquent or as detailed as yours, but that's the internet.
In terms of some of the points - no it's definitely not ridiculous to suggest he's just having a blip in form, but it's alst not ridiculous to suggest he's experiencing age-related decline which is very common in players at this age and can often be seemingly inexplicably sharp/sudden. I take the point about people predicting his downfall long before now, but with every passing year sadly those people are more and more likely to be correct - that's just the laws of human physiology. Ultimately, Michael Edwards gets paid the big bucks to decide which of those it is. And if Salah's numbers say he's still elite, well so do Jota and Nunez's, so cause for optimism that we're not going to suddenly become midtable without him. For all the talk of leadership and mentoring this young group, when we've needed it most in the past 2-3 weeks as our season has started to unravel, it's not really been there (not targeted at Salah specifically, but all of the senior players bar maybe Robbo).
But on the whole I agree - I also would like him to extend (for one year) but believe there is a tipping point to selling him this summer, although I think that amount would be closer to £50m, but that's fine we can agree to disagree there.
I just never really understand when people try to shut down any debate/discussion and say well can't we just support the players, as otherwise what's the point of having a discussion board then, to just endlessly post compliments and well wishes until the off-season? We all support the team and want what's best for it, we're all desperately willing these lads to have one last stand and achieve an unlikely send-off for a man we adore - discussing the future shape and state of the team isn't mutually exclusive. If anything it's been largely precipitated by the cloud we've had for months of knowing we have huge upheaval coming in a matter of weeks, made worse by an indifferent few weeks on the pitch where even the players look like they just want the season to be over - it's understandable people are casting one eye towards "what's next", it doesn't mean we aren't supporting the team - it's just a silly little internet forum after all.
