British Newspaper: Mohamed Salah's Decline Puts Liverpool in a Dilemma After Breaking the 'Thirty Rule'

The British newspaper "Mirror" has put Egyptian star Mohamed Salah under the microscope, considering that his decline in performance puts the owners of Liverpool Football Club in a difficult position, after they decided to break their golden rule regarding not renewing contracts for players over the age of thirty.

The newspaper reported on Sunday that the "Fenway" sports group, which owns the club, "exempted Salah from the rule," which imposes on the player to "repay the favor" through his performances on the field.

Liverpool had renewed Salah's contract last April for two seasons, in a move described by the newspaper as a "break of the rules" in place at the club, which saw his former teammates Sadio Mane and Roberto Firmino as the most notable victims.

The "Mirror" clarified that "Liverpool's owners succumbed to the fans' requests who wanted Salah to remain with the team," despite their strong opposition to renewing contracts for aging players, which is the approach of Michael Edwards, the club's Director of Football Operations.

However, the newspaper pointed out that "only 6 months have passed since Salah's (33 years old) contract renewal for followers to discover that the Fenway group's view on not extending contracts for older players was correct."

The newspaper cited statistics to illustrate Salah's decline, noting that "in the last 9 matches of last season, Salah scored two goals," while "he has scored the same number in 7 matches so far this season, meaning he scores a goal every 4 matches."

The decline was not limited to scoring alone, as the newspaper observed that "his creativity on the field has faded, as he has only provided 3 key passes in the last 17 matches in the Premier League."

In conclusion, the "Mirror" mentioned that Liverpool "got rid of Sadio Mane to Bayern Munich in 2022 when he was thirty years old," and the club also decided "not to renew Roberto Firmino's contract at the age of thirty-one," allowing him to leave for free to Al Ahli Saudi.

In light of this exemption granted to the team's star players, the newspaper concluded that "the Egyptian player must 'repay the favor' to the group and silence the noise around him and prove that they were right when they decided to keep him until the summer of 2027."