LIV have done to Golf in broad daylight what City are basically doing behind the scenes. Whatever way you look at it, there will be those who simply want more money. End of. And unfortunately, in football, teams like City and PSG etc are the ones to blame for that situation and ironically have the same sportswashing background
When Salah was into his last 2 years and he was approached about re-signing, the wrong thing to do, in my opinion would have been to advertise the possibility of him being up for sale. Maybe 2 years ago, the board were confident that there would have been something we could do on the back of an offer being rejected at the first attempt.
You cant please everyone all of the time. If we had put him up for sale 2 years ago after the first negotiation fell through, apart from the fact this may well have had a detrimental effect on Mo and where he felt he stood with the club for the next 2 years, there would have been chaos and fume in here from some because we were considering letting our biggest asset go. We have tried to negotiate and to date there has been little to no movement. Given the wage structure within the club, I imagine he/and/or his agent want more than we are prepared to pay based on what teams like City/PSG/ManU have now normalised for players of his stature and rightly get slated for!
I imagine Mo is surprised, as am I, that no one has made a public play for him so far in this transfer window (I dont know, but I am sure someone will tell me if I am wrong) but I wouldnt be surprised if some cheeky twat came in a week or 2 before the window closes with a derisory offer of £30m and we are then forced to show our hand.
Ideal scenarios in order of the maximum benefit to the club in my opinion:
1. Mo stays, commits to 2 more years based on increased performance related bonuses, has a blinder.
2. Mo leaves to a foreign club this summer paying us in the region of £50m (more would be a bonus, but i feel £50m is realistic)
3. Mo stays, plays a blinder, helps us win one or both of the big 2 and leaves as a legend on a free.
We still got Mo's best years!
Unfortunately there isnt a one size fits all solution and someone will inevitably feel they could have done better.