On the message Salah signing the contract sends…
I think it’s important because I’m 100 per cent sure that our fans love to see him extending. So, it gives a positive vibe towards the club – maybe a positive vibe we might not even need, but it’s always good to have positive vibes instead of negative vibes. On the other hand, Mo performed so well, the club performed so well, with you guys only talking about their contracts.
But I think it’s only positive because if you want to sign new players or players that want to extend here, yes or no, it’s always positive to see that one of our star players over the last seven or eight years has made the choice to extend his contract. It also shows maybe how ambitious this club is, so not only Mo but also the owners and the ones that came in last season, that we are really ambitious to keep performing the way this club has performed for so many years.
On whether he sees Salah’s role changing in the future…
That I don’t know. I don’t know six, seven, eight years ago or maybe three or four years ago if he was every second of the game involved – I would be surprised. If I look at all the wingers all around the world, they are not 90 minutes outplaying their opponent every single time. I think if you are a winger, you have to be creative – and that’s the most difficult part in football, especially against these low blocks many good wingers face. So, it’s then normal that once in a while you lose the ball or one of your actions fail.
But in general, Mo has a lot of impact on our game with assists and goals but not only that. I think he’s also a big threat – but he’s not the only one. If I look at the Champions League this week, I think wingers are getting more and more and more and more important in this modern game of football because teams are going to lower, lower, lower, lower blocks than ever before. If you look at Raphinha, Lamine Yamal, [Khvicha] Kvaratskhelia, Desire Doue, [Bukayo] Saka, [Gabriel] Martinelli, they were all able during the week to create chances – and that’s what Mo does for us and what Cody [Gakpo] and Lucho [Luis Diaz] are doing for us as well.
