Salah's Stock Plummets: Saudi Clubs Now Offering Just £36.9m as Liverpool Brace for Cut-Price Exit

Liverpool's hopes of recouping serious money for Mohamed Salah appear to have evaporated, with Saudi Arabian clubs now prepared to offer only a fraction of what they were willing to spend three years ago.

The Premier League champions are bracing themselves to part with their Egyptian forward this summer, after Salah's performances have nosedived dramatically. Where Al-Ittihad dangled £150m in front of the Reds back in 2023, the Saudi Pro League contingent are now prepared to match only the initial £36.9m Liverpool paid Roma for him in 2017.

The deterioration in Salah's form has been stark. This season he has managed just seven goals across 29 appearances, a far cry from the 29 he plundered in the Premier League last term. His relationship with the club has also soured, with the winger accusing Liverpool of using him as a scapegoat during their defensive wobbles earlier in the campaign. He found himself warming the bench with uncomfortable regularity until a diplomatic intervention from Arne Slot led to peace talks and his return for the Brighton fixture.

The understanding is that Slot, the board and Salah have agreed to park their differences until the season's end, when his departure is anticipated. The lucrative salary package Saudi clubs are dangling—their primary tool in luring him east—means the transfer fee will inevitably suffer.

Former Liverpool defender Steve Nicol has been blunt in his assessment of the decline. Speaking on ESPN, he called the fall-off "absolutely scary," suggesting it stems from a cocktail of lost confidence and possible irreversible deterioration. "I've never seen this," Nicol remarked. "How somebody can go from the top of the mountain and just disappear so quickly is absolutely scary. I've never seen it before, ever!"

Mark Kennedy, who wore the red shirt as a winger, has been equally scathing. Describing Salah as "yesterday's man" on talkSPORT, Kennedy highlighted poor ball retention and excessive possession loss as underlying issues he's noticed for some time. "Every time I watch Liverpool, I never liked Salah," Kennedy said. "His ball retention is really, really poor. He gives up a lot of possession."

Kennedy acknowledged Salah's "phenomenal" statistics from last year but suggested his comments and behaviour have become a distraction, compounding Liverpool's loss of attacking firepower. The contrast is damning: from 29 Premier League goals last season to just four this term represents a collapse that no amount of Saudi money can disguise.