Liverpool hero John Aldridge blames Mohamed Salah's agent Ramy Abbas Issa for his contract stand-off.
Writing for the Liverpool Echo, Aldridge declared: "Much of the talk heading into Saturday's game centred less around the match itself and more about Mohamed Salah's contract saga.
"His agent has been very unprofessional with his Twitter post as it should be kept between them and the club. I actually think, in the last three games, the situation has got to Salah.
"He has been as poor as he could be in the last three matches. When we're going for three more cups, you want the player to be right and I just think, mentally, he is not quite right at the moment.
"If he's going to go and wants to go, Liverpool simply have to sell him in the summer. You can't allow the 12 months on his deal to run down because we would need to use that money to replace him. But how do you replace someone who scores 30 goals a season? It's very difficult.
"Chelsea won't be able to get anyone. City, Newcastle and PSG may be able to offer him the wages he wants. If we can't afford to give Mo a new contract, then you can't afford Mbappe or Haaland. It would be contradicting the situation. If Liverpool were to sign either player, which I doubt, they'd be getting at least £400,000 a week.
"The longer this drags on, there's every chance it could unsettle the squad. But what Liverpool have done quite well is tying down most of the players to new deals prior to this, which avoids the club being put in a similar situation with other members of the squad in the near future."
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