Liverpool forward Mohamed Salah remains happy at Anfield but it privately unimpressed with how challenging negotiations over a new contract are proving to be.
The Reds have been on a mission to secure the long-term futures of their biggest stars, and next on the to-do list is Salah, whose current contract has just under two years left to run.
According to The Athletic, Salah wants to stay at Liverpool and hopes that an agreement over fresh terms can be reached soon, but he is understood to be unimpressed with the manner in which the club have approached his future.
Salah has compared his situation to that of Manchester City's Kevin De Bruyne, who secured himself a new contract at the Etihad Stadium earlier this year with very little fuss, and Salah has been left wondering why he hasn't been afforded the same treatment.
De Bruyne is older than Salah and has had significantly more fitness problems than the Egyptian, but City had no problem throwing a huge salary at De Bruyne and Salah believes he deserves something similar.
The 29-year-old feels he is not yet in his prime, but Liverpool have so far been reluctant to agree and hand him the kind of wages he is looking for - largely because of concerns over what it would do to the club's current wage structure.
Liverpool's owners, Fenway Sports Group, have long been reluctant to hand huge sums of money to ageing players, with that stance leaving Jordan Henderson facing an uncertain future earlier this summer.
Wage structure concerns are nothing new to FSG, who have made some unpopular decisions in their tenure at Major League Baseball side Boston Red Sox.
FSG chose to trade star right fielder Mookie Betts to the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2020 amid fears that a new contract for the then 28-year-old would have created an unsustainable wage budget, and there are concerns that Salah could succumb to the same fate.
Talks over a new deal are continuing, and both Liverpool and Salah are keen to thrash out an agreement soon, but the bumps in the road are beginning to concern the Egyptian forward.
Source : 90min