Salah Exit Explained | The Football Boardroom

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0:44Welcome back. You're looking suitably bronzed after your sojourn in the bunkers of the Portuguese fairways.

0:53Henry:Yes, more bunkers than fairways. Yeah, you play well, you told me. Yeah, well, that's a rarity. Well, listen, let's share what we're going to talk about today. We are going to spend some time in a Premier League bunker later on. Yes, we are. So we're going to, you've been at St George's Park with the England team all day yesterday. So we're going to take a look at the relationship between the Premier League, in particular Premier League clubs and owners and the England team. We're going to also just follow up on last week's story around Chelsea and take a little look inside the Premier League shareholders group.

1:28Henry:and start with the big news that broke, which is that Mo Salah is leaving. And I heard you on national radio this morning. Yeah, I was on the Today programme this morning, and you know it's one of those stories that jumps out of your parish and into the wider domain when the Today programme, which obviously deals with affairs of state and global geopolitics and everything, when they want to know about Mo Salah. And it was interesting, it was in the press conference yesterday, I think it was the Lewis Hall press conference at St. George's Park. And the questions were being asked about Lewis Hall playing against Laminya Marl and all that, real football headers and volleys stuff.

2:05And then someone started passing their phone around. I think it was just after six o 'clock with the news from Mo Salah that he'd put on his Instagram, the very emotional farewell. And the many elements to it I found, and I know we mainly deal with the money, But can you explain to me why the financial issue, why he's going for no fee? Because he's still got a year left on his contract.

2:31Henry:Yes, I will take a stab at that. I think the first thing to say is that, you know, let's deal with the here and now. I think this is a very elegant solution for all parties. I don't think any of the players here, Liverpool, Mo Salah, wanted to be where we are. But, and maybe we'll get to how we got here, but where we are is a situation where the club have agreed to release Mo from the last year of his contract, which has the effect of making Mo a free agent in the summer. and Mo in doing so has walked away from a year's worth of guaranteed income. Which was about how much were we looking at? Well, the numbers vary, but it would seem to be somewhere in the£20 million at least area for Liverpool.

3:29That's one year of his contract. That's the last year of his contract.

3:32Henry:He signed a two-year deal and you were right in referring to it is important that when this two-year extension was announced, this time last year. Mo Salah was in the form of his life in a team, first year of Arnie Slott's management, that was on track and ultimately became champions for only the second time in Mo's Liverpool career. He was footballer of the year and playing out of his skin. So anybody saying it was some grave mistake to extend Mo at that time is without doubt forgetting the context when that deal was announced. But that said, it hasn't turned out to be a good deal for anybody.

4:13Henry:And this, I think, is the key to your question around why there is no transfer fee. There could be lots of explanatory reasons, but the cold hard facts are that Mo Salah's form has dipped dramatically this season. They did okay with him when he was away at the AFCON, without him, didn't they? Florian Vert seemed to flourish a little bit more. Yeah, well, we said in our previous episode that a lot of what went on last summer at Liverpool in terms of their recruitment and retention of Mo raises quite a lot of questions, actually, and I think we'll get to that in a second. But on the specific question of this deal today, as I say, elegant and smart, and it flows, I think, from a very simple and obvious fact, which is that after the famous blow-up in autumn, where...

5:04Henry:At Ellen Road. Yes, where Mo essentially dug out Arnie Slott. You said he had no relationship with him or the relationship there was an issue. He did. And that followed, I think, him being dropped to the bench for the first time in his eight, nine years at the club. So that was a very, very significant blow up between star player and coach. And if you recall, we said at the time that that was likely to lead to some form of divorce. And I think what got announced yesterday is the kind of football equivalent of a no-fault divorce. It suits both parties. And what has happened in between that blow-up and now, I think we can safely conclude, Henry, is that I suspect within days of that row, Liverpool would have been looking to the transfer market to find a way out of a very messy situation with Mo.

6:04Henry:And I suspect that they found between November and January the 31st, maybe to their surprise, certainly to a lot of commentators' surprise who got this wrong, that there wasn't a market for Mo where somebody was going to buy a player with 18 months left on his contract for millions and millions of pounds. We saw all sorts of numbers bandied around when there was feverish speculation that he would leave in January. The cold hard facts are that a player of Mo's age whose form has dipped question mark permanently but certainly this season meaningfully on figures quoted north of£300 ,000 a week, there was not a transfer market for Mo where he could earn the same amount of money or more and Liverpool would be paid millions of pounds to release him.

6:57When he had his blowout, just to sort of slightly defend sort of my profession, a lot of people, and certainly me included, assumed that in January Saudi clubs with deep pockets would come in and give Liverpool money for him. So, I mean, then you're right, I called it completely wrong. But actually it was logical at the time because of the extent that he still had left on his contract. Correct.

7:24Henry:I'm still amazed he's gone for free. But it ignores the cold, hard facts of the two key criteria here in elite footballer recruitment. One, salary. to age and profile. And there are a tiny, tiny number of megastar footballers who have moved for large transfer fees in their mid-30s. Cristiano Ronaldo is one good example. And I think people hoped that Salah would be another Ronaldo. But there is another factor at large here. It's quite clear to me that the preferred and favoured destination in that speculation that you were part of was Saudi. and you know sometimes I think when we sit here on a Wednesday you know going on about football you know we can sometimes forget the real world out there we're in the middle of a war Saudi Arabia is a key player in in in those events and I think that could be a relevant factor in in the way this has played out on actually for two reasons um one it would be very clear to me that you know, the economic factors from Saudi would be highly impacted by the situation in the Gulf today in terms of their willingness and ability to pay huge transfer fees.

8:43Henry:I think it's been clear for some time. They'll have the money. I think it's been clear for some time. I saw this firstly in Gulf and I'm now seeing it again in football. There's been a change of emphasis. The era. Are you seriously telling me that because of the war, because of geopolitics, that they might not be able to sign Mo Salah? I'm saying it's not a question of signing it's a question of paying a large transfer fee as well as a large salary that's the point I'm making the era where they've been buying players over 30 for big transfer fees bailing out a number of clubs in Europe particularly Premier League clubs from FFP dilemmas by buying 30 31 32 year old players for 20 million quid it's been obvious to me for some time that that era is behind but that predates the war it does it does but that cannot that can surely on the Saudi side only have made matters even more complex and I think on the most side by the way and I think we should talk about the player you know he talked a lot about family in his statement last night they obviously enjoy living in the northwest yeah but equally equally when you are as wealthy as Mo Salah now is after a hugely successful career at a time when you know compensation in football is at its all-time high.

9:59Henry:You know, Mo is an enormously wealthy man. He can choose where he wants to live and have his family live for the next two or three years. I suspect that, you know, a move to Saudi is more complicated than it was before this war. It looks a bit more of a dangerous place. Do footballers think like that? I think they think hugely about their family and factors beyond the pure football, because they can afford to. So I think coming back to the solution, Liverpool established to their absolute reasonable certainty that there was no transfer market value, which means they're left in a situation where Mo may or may not be a starting footballer earning a huge salary, 20 to 25 million pounds next season.

10:47Henry:And that isn't really viable. And for Mo, it's quite clear that just sticking around, coming off the bench, maybe having a good run as a starter, maybe not, picking up his salary, isn't attractive to Mo. No, he likes to play. And he made that clear in the statement in November, yes? That was the root cause of his anger. I can see a lot of attractions for the way this has panned out for Liverpool Football Club in terms of it enhances Arne Slott's position at a time when he has come under scrutiny from many Liverpool fans. Plus also there might be a Philippe in terms of a feel-good factor. Let's get behind Moe.

11:24Let's make it a fantastic send-off and actually lift the team home and away. There's a lot to play for. They're in the quarterfinal of the Champions League,

11:32Henry:quarterfinal of the FA Cup. They need to get that Champions League position, as you always keep on telling me, to finish high up in the top five. It is so, so... We will come back to that fight for top five in another episode, but we've repeatedly pointed out the stakes for Liverpool are huge. And so Mo going out on a high with absolute clarity on his position, rather like the way Jurgen left the club, it does feel to be an echo of the way that they handled Klopp's departure, early announcement, kind of farewell tour dynamics. Let's hope they get some football benefit. But I want to be quite clear to our audience that from Liverpool's perspective, this is an elegant and smart decision and it's not common because it is facing up to the fact that it hasn't worked out it is to some extent cutting their losses they're saving 25 million pounds of salary facing up to the fact that it just hasn't really worked out as intended for lots of reasons and of course let's be quite clear while i'm on the money our favorite subject this does give Mo Salah and his agent a complete carte blanche to negotiate their next club without any transfer fee having been paid the ability for those funds to be used in a combination of a signing bonus and a fantastically lucrative contract don't forget the benchmark for Mo's earnings is set Mo Salah would not be walking away from 300 ,000 plus a week at Liverpool to go anywhere for a pay cut Even if the quality of football was better than it is in Saudi So like a middle ranking Or a team maybe in Germany or Italy That's flirting with the Champions League If you're saying he'd only get 200 ,000 a week there You're saying no, he goes for the money in Saudi I can't see why a player of most stature And standing at 33 years old Coming out of Liverpool Walking away from 25 million a year of earnings Is going to be in the market for a pay cut On the contrary I think he'll be looking to match or improve his earnings and because he is a free agent, be paid, encouraging.

13:48Henry:Let me tell you, I think the two markets that stand out for a player of his global reputation, and I noted your comments earlier around, you know, what you said on Today, the Today programme this morning, you know, this is an iconic figure, where, you know, the most famous Muslim footballer in the world, bar none, arguably the greatest ever Muslim footballer, Whilst people have gravitated towards Saudi as him becoming essentially the iconic figurehead of that league as maybe Cristiano winds down, surely the MLS in a sort of Messi style signing where he would be what's called a designated player, which means he can receive whatever earnings on an exceptional basis a club wants.

14:28Henry:As you know, the league gets behind those trends. It's very difficult for us. And he could get actually a take or a shareholding in a franchise or a new franchise. He might get a stake in a club. Sorry, I cannot believe the Saudis would allow, as you say, such an iconic figure to go to effectively almost a rival league. I think there will be intense competition between Saudi and the MLS to get Mo. Because, you know, look at what happened with Leo Messi. it's hard for our English football audience to get their mind around this where we have such feverish competition at the club level in the MLS transfers of that magnitude transfers of players that are so strategic in their potential value to that league the league itself plays a central role in those transfers in the case of Leo Messi so fundamental was the perceived value of him to MLS that he even took a piece of the league's television deal.

15:36Henry:I think the interesting question is Liverpool as well. I think they are one of the clubs, the tiny number of clubs in the world, who from an impact, from a commercial standpoint, from a brand reputation standpoint, from a global following standpoint, are perhaps bigger than any one single player. That's not common you know i think when you know i'm my mind is drawn to when to when son left um spurs you know that that left a real hole in their huge following in southeast asia tens of millions of tottenham supporters were in who in korea who were in korea so i think that liverpool will weather the storm commercially of losing mo salah yes you will see a meaningful reduction in their following in certain areas of the world, certain communities, but they will weather that storm, as they have done when superstars have moved on in the past.

16:35Keegan-Left Dalgleish came in.

16:36Henry:Yeah, it's a different world today in terms of, you know, globalization and social media and connectivity. But yes, I think there's something in that global brand appeal of Liverpool that can probably withstand this better than most. But we shall see. We shall see. But I think we should also think about, you know, we've credited, I guess, both parties here with this being an elegant solution. But I would like to turn back to the decision to extend Mo in the first place to last summer and how that all formed part of really a radical change of strategy in the transfer market by Liverpool at the beginning of this season and how that has worked out and some of the personalities behind the scenes.

17:30Henry:because sitting here as we do today, the reality is that after a huge amount of gross spending last summer, particularly in the forward areas, as we've discussed in a prior pod, the defence of the title has not gone well at the Premier League. Probably one of the worst defences of a Premier League title. Yeah, I mean, we shall see if they can pull it back in the next seven games. but I certainly felt that the recruitment of Isak, Vietz, Eketike and the retention of Mo gave them, shall we say, an embarrassment of riches in the forward areas that just hasn't actually panned out in terms of results and the performance of the team.

18:13Henry:Now, Mo's declined... They had lost three strikers, one for obviously very tragic reasons in Jota. True, but I did wonder at the time that whether or not they were overloaded in that area and you pointed out to me earlier that maybe Mo being still in the club this season might have had effect on some of that. His standing and power in the club is so high. Do you think we'll see Florian Wurtz flourish now because so much more will go through him? Well, I do think that there's some interesting statistics I saw recently around that period when Mo went to the Africa Cup of Nations that the team picked up generally results.

18:53Henry:And specifically, some of those forward signings, particularly Vert, started to look more at home in a Liverpool shirt. So let's put it this way. Coming back to my theory that this is a bold and brave bit of management to face up to a mistake and cut losses. On the pure footballing side, Liverpool have obviously decided, spending 20 to 25 million pounds on Mo next year is not justified, merited or required. And that must be a football consideration as well as a huge cost saving, which helps them in FFP terms. Where does this leave Michael Edwards? Well, that's an interesting question. So for our audience's benefit, Michael Edwards with the very, very sexy title of CEO of football, which was...

19:41Come on, you would love a title like that.

19:45Henry:Well, he came back to the club last March. So after, sorry, two Marches ago. After it was announced that Jurgen Klopp was leaving the club in the January, it was announced that Michael Edwards was rejoining Liverpool, formerly the sporting director, in this new role of CEO of football. And by the way, that he would be bringing along Richard Hughes, formerly of Bournemouth, as sporting director. And this was briefed as Michael working at the ownership level, not day-to-day in the club. Richard would be doing the day-to-day sporting director role, managing recruitment, managing transfers, managing retention.

20:31Henry:But that Michael would be working at the owner level, overseeing their football activities, precisely because at that time they were going to explore the so-called multi-club ownership model, in plain English, that Fenway Sports Group, the owners of Liverpool, were going to buy other football clubs to work in tandem with Liverpool. Which is about half the Premier League owners do. Yes, there's a fair smattering with, and we should cover this, and we will cover this, as its own subject. So what was interesting is that in the last week or so, we have read briefings that the Liverpool owners have decided not to pursue.

21:15Henry:This is John W. Henry basically came out and said that we're not going to pursue a multi-club strategy. And I wonder... I think it's just been put on hold for now. I mean, they might revisit it, but I don't think it's completely off the table. But you're right, it's a non-runner for now. Yeah. Now, I suspect in the time that Michael's been back at the club, he spent a lot of time around Europe, probably specifically meeting clubs, looking at clubs. 25 clubs. I mean, he's devoted two years to this to then find actually they're not going to do it. Would he be frustrated? I think probably yes is the answer to that question.

21:51Henry:But for me, the more interesting question, and this gets back to last summer, it gets to the Mo deal that's just been announced, is that in a world where Fenway only have Liverpool as a football investment, then it does rather beg the question whether Michael and Richard Hughes are kind of duplicating each other and indeed whether there's room for two people doing those roles. The facts are that last summer, as I say, a huge amount of money was spent net spending for the first time in the Fenway era, i.e. they spent a lot more than they generated from sales. I think the figures were about 400 million outs and about 200 in.

22:33Henry:So net 200 million investment on a team that just won the title with a manager who'd won the title in his first year, largely with his predecessor's team at that point. So changing the team, spending 200 million pounds, keeping Mo Salah on a two-year deal that's now had to be ripped up. I think, Henry, that the very, very hard-nosed businessmen behind Fenway, John Henry, Tom Werner. One thing I know for sure is they're certainly not looking at that as a successful summer in the recruitment market. Maybe it comes good next season, but it hasn't gone as well as they would have hoped. But it's not Michael Edwards' fault that Fenway have decided they don't want, for now, to pursue a multi-club ownership model.

23:23I mean, he spent the last two years going around Europe looking at 25 clubs I think they're targeted three or four in the end.

23:31Henry:I agree that is not his fault but with the best will in the world do you seriously think that a guy who's called CEO of football at Liverpool Football Club who recruited Richard to come in and be the sporting director wasn't a key person in you know the record transfer of Alexander Isak which hasn't worked out, wasn't an absolutely key person in the retention of Mo Salah. And a failure to land Mark Gay, which has been pretty calamitous. That has also been, yes. He's still highly regarded. I mean, there'll be a lot of clubs in for him. All I'm saying is let's watch this space. But in my opinion, with multi-club gone, I think that definitely does take away a big chunk of the reason why maybe Michael came back to Liverpool.

24:19Henry:What I'm saying to you is that I don't like the lack of accountability that can occur when you've got two senior people more or less doing similar jobs. And maybe there's an aspect to Michael's job I'm not aware about. Maybe he's going to get involved in baseball. I don't know. But from where I'm looking, those two guys are going to be, you know, getting in each other's way if we're not careful.

24:48this is international week you've been in premier league boardrooms are the owners the majority of them overseas owners now of premier league clubs how committed they are to the england national team do they understand its importance or is it simply all about their clubs well it's it's

25:10Henry:fascinating isn't it as you in my time in the game i've obviously had um i've had overseas owners at all of my clubs um you've had russian i've had americans at liverpool russians at chelsea and egyptian and american at aston villa and yeah as a speaking as a football fan i don't think they give a damn about how england perform in usa 2026 i mean chelsea always had a sort of block that went through you know joe cole frank lampard ashley when he went there jt and others but was roman abramovich committed to the england national team certainly not in terms of the results of that team they couldn't have been less interested i remember i remember trying to put england on an agenda for an executive meeting at chelsea and the chairman telling me that had i not noticed that our owners Russian.

26:05Henry:That was Bruce Buck, was it? Yeah, he enjoyed putting me in my place on that one. But you would have come back on that, A, because you love England, but also B, because you tend not to get pushed around. I am strongly of the view that a successful England team, firstly, I am arch traditional. For me, the pinnacle of the game is international football. I was moved reading yesterday some of the, just some of the testimonies from current England players about how they feel when they put the shirt on. I was brought up that way. We all were proper England fans and I still consider it the pinnacle of the game.

26:40Henry:In every sense of that phrase, not merely the pinnacle of playing achievement, but, you know, the most, for me, the World Cup every four years is the height of the game. I absolutely love it and I love England. So yes, you know, I make no bones about that, but as a businessman in English football running three elite football clubs, I have always been at the view that a successful England national team, both on the field and by the way, the related point of England hosting major tournaments like the Euros in 2028 has a feel good effect on the club game. And so I passionately believe that to be the case.