That deal was only penned in April 2025 and was intended to keep Salah in his current surroundings through to the summer of 2027. Said terms are being cut short, with it mutually agreed that a parting of ways should take place when the current campaign comes to a close.Salah has found the going uncharacteristically tough this term, with just 10 additions being made to an overall goal tally for Liverpool that now stands at 255 through 435 appearances. Only five Premier League efforts have been recorded this season, leading to regular spells on the bench being taken in.It was during one of those enforced breaks from the Reds’ starting XI that Salah aimed an explosive blast in the Reds’ direction. Exit speculation was ramped up at that stage, with it announced in late March that an imminent departure had been signed off.The odd eyebrow was raised following the revelation that the Egyptian superstar would be allowed to walk away for nothing, with there seemingly enough interest - with Saudi Pro League and MLS teams ready to do business - in order for a fee to be demanded.Barnes has, however, explained to GOAL - while speaking in association with OLBG - why Salah is being cast adrift. Asked if he is surprised that a free transfer has been granted, the Liverpool icon said: “Well, no, because once again, he's coming up to 35 years old. If he doesn't go on a free, are they going to keep him and pay him all that money when they could use that to get somebody else? You're not going to get a big transfer fee for a 34 or 35-year-old anyway. So I don't think it's surprising.“Yes, you could get 20 million, whatever it is. But in the grand scheme of things, when you're talking about 20 million pounds or getting £400,000-a-week off your wage bill to do something else with it, no, I don't think they would necessarily want to push for that.”Former Liverpool managing director Christian Purslow has suggested that Liverpool would have been unable to find a buyer for Salah if they did demand a fee, telling The Football Boardroom Podcast of why a once productive working relationship is being brought to a sudden close: “There could be lots of explanatory reasons, but the cold, hard facts are Mo Salah’s form has dipped dramatically.“Elegant and smart, and it flows from an obvious fact that after the famous blow-up, where Mo essentially dug out Arne Slot. That was a very significant blow-up and we said at the time, it was likely to lead to some sort of divorce. It is the kind of football equivalent of a no-fault divorce. It suits both parties.“What has happened between the blow-up and now, I think we can safely conclude, that Liverpool would have been looking towards the transfer market to find a way out of a very messy situation with Mo.“I suspect they found, maybe to their surprise, there wasn’t a market for Mo where someone was going to buy a player with 18 months left on his contract for millions and millions of pounds.“The cold, hard facts are a player of Mo’s age whose form has dipped, question marks permanently but certainly this season meaningfully, on figures north of £300,000 per week, there was not a transfer market for Mo where he would earn the same amount or more and Liverpool would be paid millions of pounds to release him.“The two criteria here in elite football are salary and age and profile. There are a tiny number of mega-star footballers who have moved for large transfer fees in their mid-30s. Cristiano Ronaldo is one and people hoped Salah would be another Ronaldo.”
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