Gary Lineker believes it will be tough for Liverpool to hold contract talks with Mohamed Salah

Liverpool will be heading into the Champions League final in Paris against Real Madrid. The Reds will be looking at their big match players like Mohamed Salah, Sadio Mane and others to deliver in the all-important final.

However, Jurgen Klopp will also have to think about retaining the Egyptian as he has less than 18 months left in his contract. But given the wage structure that Liverpool follows, it will be a massive call from the management and Klopp to decide what they need to do with the deal.

Former England legend Gary Linekar is aware of the entire situation and is interested to see whether the Reds increase their wage wall to retain the services of their talisman, Mohamed Salah, at Anfield. But one thing that he fears is that if Liverpool breaks the wage structure for the Egyptian then many more players will ask for the same which will result in a difficult situation.

Lineker believes that Liverpool and Salah will be able to find a middle ground. They will hope to keep Salah’s demands and also hope that their wage structure remains intact. The former England international was quoted as saying, “The thing is, he knows that he is absolutely top tier, so he could play anywhere. So to compete with that, then you’ve probably got to go against your whole wage structure. I don’t know what it is at Liverpool, I imagine it’s quite high anyway,” Linekar told Liverpool Echo.

“But then you’ve got to make another leap again, and then you get the old knock on the door from the other players, they’ve got a few superstars who would be saying ‘I want that’. So it’s not always an easy decision, he’s nearly 30 years old so that’s a decision you’ve got to make about your wage structure. We’ve seen that teams can get into trouble, so it’s not that easy,” added the former Leicester City forward.

However, till now there are no developments in the entire Mohamed Salah deal as both parties are focused on the current season as the Reds chase Manchester City in the Premier League race. Whereas the Reds will also fight for the Champions League title as they battle it out in the finals against Real Madrid.

Apart from Salah, there are players like Sadio Mane and Roberto Firmino who have less than 18 months in their contract at Liverpool. So the club will have to take decisions to maintain harmony in the dressing and also keep their wage structure intact.