Mohamed Salah new contract helps Liverpool transfers admits Arne Slot

Mohamed Salah signing his new contract with Liverpool will help the club in convincing new players to sign and existing players to extend their own deals.

That is the belief of Arne Slot, speaking just over an hour after Liverpool confirmed the news that Salah had extended his stay at Anfield to 2027.

Facing the prospect of losing Salah, Virgil van Dijk and Trent Alexander-Arnold on a free transfer at the end of the campaign, on top of a facelift elsewhere in the squad, it was seen as an almost insurmountable challenge.

But ensuring two of those three key players stay – with a new two-year deal for Van Dijk to follow – gives Liverpool crucial breathing room.

Asked if Salah’s extension would help the Reds in convincing their transfer targets to sign, Slot agreed.

“If I would put myself in the shoes of a player who we might want to sign, it’s always nice to tell them that Mo has extended his contract,” he told his pre-West Ham press conference.

“So that helps, but what helps the most is that we kept a quality player that scored seven or eight years in a row so many goals for us.

“In the end, I just said, football is a game where we are mostly judged on the goals we score and we don’t concede, so it’s helpful to have a player that can score goals, that’s for sure.”

Liverpool are expected to sign a new left-back and a centre-forward at the very least this summer, with centre-back, right-back, wide forward and another midfielder also positions of focus.

But there is still more work to do in terms of contracts, too, not least Ibrahima Konate‘s which runs out in 2026.

The club are in talks with the representatives of both Konate and Conor Bradley, and as he continued, Slot admitted the news of Salah staying could be a “positive” in assuring his current players that they are in the right place.

“Like I just said, I think it’s important. I’m 100 percent sure that our fans love to see him extend,” he said.

“So it gives a positive vibe towards the club, maybe a positive vibe we might even not need, but it’s always good to have positive vibes instead of negative vibes.

“On the other hand, Mo performed so well, the club performed so well, with you guys only talking about their contracts.

“But I think it’s only positive, because if you want to sign new players or players that want to extend here yes or no, it’s always positive to see that one of our star players over the last seven or eight years made the choice to extend his contract.

“It also shows maybe how ambitious this club is, so not only Mo but also the owners and the ones that came in last season.

“We are really ambitious to keep performing the way this club has performed for so many years now.”