Yesterday saw Liverpool announcing that Sadio Mane has agreed to terms on a new long-term deal that will keep him at the club until 2023. The contract is understood to be worth around £150,000 a week. This follows in the footsteps of his front line mates, Roberto Firmino and Mohamed Salah, who also signed five-year contract extensions in April and July respectively.
This is a stark contrast from the trend we’ve seen in recent years of players leaving the club for larger paydays elsewhere. Philippe Coutinho and Luis Suarez left for big money Barcelona moves, while Raheem Sterling had a very ugly protracted holdout in order to get an increase in pay grade at Manchester City.
From these occurrences emerged a narrative that the Reds were a so-called stepping club for truly elite players.
Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp believes we can put that narrative to rest now.
“It’s not that I say to him: ‘Good morning Sadio, you are world class,’ but it is obvious sometimes that he is not aware of that,” Klopp told reporters at his weekly press conference on Friday (video available above).
“We all expect these boys to be finished in their development pretty early in their life. But he’s coming up to the best years of his career and he did really well without acknowledging it.
“I’m really pleased, really happy about the fact he’s signed this contract. It’s really a big signing. If a player is in a very good moment in his career and you can extend the contract, it’s more than just a signing, it’s a statement. I’m happy about that.
“It shows a bit of the change the club made in the last few years. A few years ago it constantly happened that players in a very good moment thought they had to leave the club to make the next step.
“Now our boys obviously think they can make the next step here. That’s good.”
Liverpool vs Watford FYIs
Kickoff: 3pm local, Vicarage Road, Saturday Nov 24
Odds via Oddschecker: Liverpool 4/7 draw 7/2 Watford 113/20
LFC Starting XI Prediction, Injury Report, Match Preview: go to this link
Score Prediction: Liverpool 2, Watford 2
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, a former writer for NBC Chicago.com and Chicago Tribune.com, regularly appears as a guest pundit on WGN CLTV and co-hosts the “Let’s Get Weird, Sports” podcast on SB Nation.
He also contributes sociopolitical essays to Lineups.com and Chicago Now. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram. The content of his cat’s Instagram account is unquestionably superior to his.