Chelsea push Liverpool to renew Salah’s contract

Mohamed Salah was prepared to move to Chelsea before his deal made him the highest-paid player in Liverpool history.

Blues’ new owner Todd Boehly had lined up Reds’ star Salah, 30, as talks stalled over a new three-year deal.

It was a major factor in Kop owners FSG coming up with a deal worth almost £400,000 a week.

Salah, through agent Ramy Abbas, had made it clear to Fenway Sports Group that he would consider returning to Stamford Bridge, where he spent two years from 2014-16.

FSG spent almost a year baulking at wage demands beyond the structure that had seen Virgil van Dijk as the club’s top earner on £225,000 a week.

SunSport revealed Liverpool were even prepared to take £60million for Salah rather than let him leave on a free next June at the end of his old deal.

But the Americans realised that, having been forced to sell Sadio Mane to Bayern Munich in a £35m deal, losing Salah to a Prem rival would have gone down badly.

The Blues threat forced a major rethink before handing Salah a deal which will see him bank at least £62m.