Liverpool are close to securing the services of attacker Sadio Mane for another five years.
Earlier this summer, the Reds were able to ink in Mo Salah and Roberto Firmino for the next five years. However, one key piece was missing. The lightning-quick left winger.
Mane was linked earlier in the summer to Real Madrid, but those rumors were shut down fairly quickly by the media and the player himself.
It has been rumored for the entire summer Liverpool were planning to offer him a new contract, but nothing had actually happened. Now they hope to lock the Senegal forward down for five years, and make him one of the highest paid Liverpool players – said the Mirror.
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Mane bagged 20 goals for the Reds in the 2017-2018, his sophomore season with the club. Even in this year’s pre-season it looks as if he has not lost a step, and that is form is still rising. Liverpool’s offense looked stagnant without any of their normal front three players on the pitch. The team’s movement was slow, easy to read, and wasn’t able to create worthy chances against sub-par teams.
But there is just something special you can feel when Mane comes onto the field. Its as if there is a new life for the team to play for. Many will not agree with this but Sadio is as much a creator as he is a finisher, he understands how to move without the ball and how to create and find space which is imperative when playing alongside Firmino and Salah.
As important as Mane is to the starting XI, when you add Firmino and Salah to the mix they get incrementally better. It is very much a story of “the whole is greater than the sum of its parts”. It is not that they are not phenomenal footballers, because they are. However, those three compliment each other so well, it makes each of them exponentially better. That is the genius of Jurgen Klopp and this Liverpool side.
This is the reason why this long term deal is just as important as any new signing we have made in recent weeks. The Senegalese sensation is key to this squad’s success, and Liverpool will need him going forward. Hopefully, he will play the duration of his career at Anfield with this new contract as Klopp was quoted by The Echo saying,
"“That is what I meant when I spoke about the mood in the club, that’s not only in the stands, we are Liverpool as a team and the boys want to be part of it. That’s really cool and it’s a big achievement for the club because these boys, Bobby Firmino, Mo Salah and Sadio Mane, and a lot of the others as well, could play for pretty much any team in the world. That’s how it is and a good sign for the club. It is an improved situation that these players don’t use us and then go. It’s cool but now we all together have to deliver. Sign your contracts but now, go again”."
It is great to see that Klopp is so dedicated to the long term future of Liverpool, and not just the short term. He wants to build a smooth running machine that will conquer for years to come. If Mane does agree to the new deal, Firmino, Salah, and Mane will be inked until 2023, which gives Jurgen plenty of time to bring home some trophies to Merseyside.