Mohamed Salah has declared he wants to stay at Liverpool for the rest of his career.
The Egyptian forward is rated by his club boss Jurgen Klopp as the best player in the world currently, after scoring 12 goals in 11 games for the Reds this season.
His current deal runs through to the end of the 2022-23 season, but Liverpool are eager to secure his future as soon as possible.
It is clear that in-form Salah is happy at Anfield, but there is more to it than that, with the club needing to satisfy his financial demands.
He is putting all the onus on Liverpool to come up with the attractive offer that will persuade him to make a long-term commitment, knowing there would be clubs queueing up to offer him big-money deals should he leave.
At the age of 29, the next contract he signs will likely be Salah's last major deal of his career.
"This doesn't depend on me. If you ask me, I would love to stay until the last day of my football [career]," Salah told Sky Sports.
"But I can't say much about that, it is not in my hands. It depends on what the club want.
"At the moment, I can't see myself ever playing against Liverpool. That would make me sad.
"It's hard. I don't want to talk about it, but it would make me really sad. Let's see what will happen in the future."
On Sunday, Salah is set to line up for Liverpool at Manchester United, where he scored three times in two visits last season, netting twice in an FA Cup defeat and then once late on in a 4-2 Premier League win.
No Liverpool player has ever scored in three consecutive away games against Manchester United, but Salah has netted in his last nine outings across all competitions.
It would almost be a surprise, therefore, if he failed to find the net at Old Trafford, with the fact United have failed to keep a clean sheet in their last nine home league matches another factor to consider.
Comparisons have been drawn between Salah and United forward Cristiano Ronaldo, and they will continue on Sunday, with the performance of each man likely to be pivotal to the outcome.
In his first season at Liverpool, in 2017-18, Salah broke Ronaldo's record of 31 Premier League goals in a 38-game campaign, scoring 32 times and averaging a strike every 91 minutes.
Salah's shot conversion rate of 22.22 per cent that season (from 144 attempts in total) is the best either he or Ronaldo have managed in their Premier League careers.
In terms of assists, Salah has twice reached 10 for a campaign, in 2017-18 and Liverpool's title-winning season of 2019-20. Ronaldo's best figure of eight was recorded in 2006-07.
This season, Salah sits alongside Jamie Vardy on seven goals at the top of the Premier League scoring chart, heading into the weekend programme.
‘We bottled it’ says Peterborough boss after shoot-out shock at Mansfield
Peterborough boss Darren Ferguson called his players ‘bottlers’ after they lost a Carabao Cup penalty shoot-out 3-1 at League Two Mansfield.
Posh came from behind to lead but the game ended 2-2 when Lucas Akins netted a stoppage-time penalty.
Former Peterborough goalkeeper Christy Pym then saved two spot-kicks before Davis Keillor-Dunn netted the winner as the Nottinghamshire team ensured they remain the only EFL side unbeaten this season, making the fourth round of the competition for the first time since 1975 .
Ferguson said: “I don’t like criticising my players in public and I very rarely do as a manager. But I am not letting them get away with that one. They absolutely bottled it.
“For the first 65-70 minutes, the penalty aside, I thought we were really, really good and they couldn’t get near us.
“But all of a sudden Mansfield started going back to front a bit more and we just bottled it, pure and simple. I can’t dress this one up.
“It is terrible result, there is no other way of putting it, and it is a massive opportunity missed.
“It was a massive chance to get in the last 16 and I hope Mansfield now get Manchester United away or something like that so our players can see it tomorrow night.”
Will Swan put the Stags ahead from the penalty spot in the fifth minute but the visitors piled on the pressure and levelled when Jonson Clarke-Harris’ 25-yard free-kick went through the wall and past Pym on the half hour.
Clarke-Harris swept home a second in the 47th minute but Mansfield raised their game and began to dominate and were rewarded with Akins’ spot-kick success three minutes into added time, before emulating their shoot-out win at Sheffield Wednesday in the previous round.
Delighted Stags boss Nigel Clough said: “We are into the next round for the first time in nearly 50 years, which is a hell of an achievement, but so is going 12 games unbeaten.
“For quite long spells we were second best as they were so good. There wasn’t too much we were doing wrong. They were just very competent.
“The respect they showed us by naming a full side said everything. They are a top side in League One and you can see the big difference, the pace and the speed they move the ball.
“We just hung on in there, trying not to concede a third goal and at 2-1 anything can happen in the last 20 minutes.
“I thought the equaliser was coming after Lucas Akins’ goal that was offside. It was no more than we deserved for hanging on in there.
“We have been good taking penalties in training and at Sheffield Wednesday so we saw no reason why we couldn’t win the shoot-out.”
Steven Naismith hails Hearts match-winner Alex Lowry
Steven Naismith hailed match-winner Alex Lowry as a special talent after the on-loan Rangers player’s late goal sent Hearts into the Viaplay Cup semi-finals.
Kilmarnock were in the ascendancy as the match edged closer to extra time, only for Lowry to strike in time added on to the regulation 90 minutes.
Brad Lyons had earlier cancelled out Jorge Grant’s opener before Lowry claimed his first goal since moving on loan to Tynecastle last month to seal the victory.
Naismith praised Lowry as one of the best young Scottish talents in the game but said he wanted to see more from the 20-year-old on a consistent basis.
The Hearts manager said: “Alex has got brilliant ability.
“I’m not sure I’ve seen in my whole footballing career a young Scottish player that I have been working with that has got such good … he can do things with a ball that a lot of others can’t.
“I’ve challenged him to see more moments like that.
“He’s been frustrated at not getting more game time but I said to him, you need to show moments and when you are on the park, you need to do more.”
Naismith was pleased to have a Hampden Park semi-final to look forward to but warned that his team would need to follow up that result, starting with a trip to play Ross County this weekend.
He added: “I was delighted to get through. It was the next step we needed to take.
“At this club there’s a demand to get to semi-finals and finals and ultimately win silverware.
“It’s a big win and everybody’s delighted but we do need to back that up.
“Over the past few seasons we haven’t had good performances at Kilmarnock, and Ross County has been the same.”
Kilmarnock manager Derek McInnes admitted he was frustrated that his players had unnecessarily chased a winning goal rather than waiting for extra time.
He said: “I was angry [at full-time] that we’ve allowed that type of goal to decide the cup tie. We had Hearts where we wanted them. We were in charge of that tie in the second half.
“We played the last phase of play as if we needed a goal to get back in the tie. We were guilty of trying to win it then. We were too excitable, too gung-ho to win a game of football in 90 minutes when we could have won the game in extra time.
“It was all last-gasp and unnecessary, almost as if we were chasing a game to win it in 90 minutes when we didn’t need to. We could – and should – have won it in extra time. But we allowed an opportunity for Hearts and they took it.”
Sam Bowen earns overdue win for Wealdstone
Sam Bowen’s fine strike proved to be the difference as Wealdstone beat Woking in the Vanarama National League.
The hosts had won just one of their previous seven games before Bowen struck from the edge of the box to seal a 1-0 victory.
Bowen’s goal came just after the 15-minute mark and he almost repeated the feat five minutes later but this time shot wide.
Goalkeeper Jed Ward made a number of crucial saves to keep Woking at bay as the home side secured the points.
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