Mohamed Salah is a wanted man. Out of contract at the end of the season, the Liverpool forward has admittedly publicly more than once that he would prefer to sign an extension at Anfield.

However, yet to reach a resolution in negotiations with the Reds, he has also repeatedly suggested that - as things stand - he is treating the current campaign like his final season with the club.

Now inside the final six months of his deal, he is free to discuss a pre-contract agreement with overseas clubs. And having failed to lure Salah away from Liverpool back in 2023, it appears Saudi Arabia is about to come calling once again.

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Sky Sports are reporting that if the Egyptian decides to leave the Reds and European football, then Saudi Pro League champions Al-Hilal - who will be looking to replace the out-of-contract Neymar themselves in the summer - are prepared to offer him a lucrative contract to move to the Middle Eastern club.

The flames to such talk has been fanned considerably by the sight of Turki Alalshikh - the chairman of the Saudi General Entertainment Authority, one of the most powerful figures in Saudi sport and a man with connections to the reigning Saudi Pro League champions - posting a mocked-up picture of Salah in an Al-Hilal shirt on his Facebook page on Wednesday.

Salah links to Saudi Arabia are nothing new. Al-Ittihad saw an £150m bid rejected 18 months ago, having wanted the forward to represent them at the 2023 FIFA Club World Cup. Now Al-Hilal holds similar desires ahead of competing in the expanded global tournament in the United States this summer.

But as they found out 18 months ago, just because Saudi wants, doesn’t necessarily mean Saudi gets. With any offer dependent on whether Salah actually decides to leave European football behind or not, it is a rather big if.

On current form, he is the best player in world football, the favourite to win next year’s Ballon d’Or and leading Liverpool’s charge for Premier League and Champions League glory.

Boasting a whopping 21 goals and 17 assists from 29 appearances, this is a player at the peak of his powers with such totals unrivalled across Europe. Breaking Liverpool and Premier League records on a seemingly weekly basis, he is showing no signs of slowing down either.

The ECHO learned back in September that Salah was then seemingly against a move to Saudi Arabia, regardless of if it meant more money. Given his form throughout the entirety of the first half of the season, he has had no reason to change his stance.

Determined to win the biggest prizes on offer in European football, Salah wants to turn single Premier League and Champions League win into multiple triumphs. He is in no rush to put himself out to pasture when he can still excel at the very highest level of the game.

He has been open that his preference is to stay put at Liverpool. If unable to agree terms with the Reds, he will not be short of suitors. But surely only then, if put in a position where he has to weigh up a next move elsewhere, could the lure of Saudi turn his head.

Until the moment he decides to look elsewhere and close the door on an extension with Liverpool, the Saudi Pro League are just an afterthought in his negotiations with the Reds.

He knows the Gulf State will be there when he wants it, waiting patiently for the moment he is actually ready. But do these latest Al-Hilal teases suggest that moment is actually drawing near?

With contract negotiations ongoing, only the Egyptian, his representatives and club bosses will know why a resolution is not yet in sight and what it would take from either party to make a breakthrough.

With every goal, assist, goal celebration taking in the adulation of Kopites, interview and social media post, Salah has successfully managed to increase the public pressure on Liverpool. And he knows it too, with each move very deliberate in his attempts to agree a new contract at Anfield.

His decision to stop in the mixed zone at Southampton back in November, for only the third time since joining the club back in 2017, reiterated his preference and teased his motives. Whether he has had a hand in it or not, these latest Saudi transfer reports can now form part of the same play.

But it takes two to tango though of course. While Liverpool have not made a move for Napoli’s Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, it is curious that the Reds’ monitoring stance regarding the seemingly PSG-bound forward became public knowledge as negotiations with Salah continue.

Liverpool are surely well-aware they still have to consider long-term replacements for the Egyptian, regardless of the outcome of his contract talks. But a resolution can at least delay that inevitable.

Only time will tell if Liverpool and Salah come to a compromise. While fingers can be pointed at the club for letting the forward - along with Virgil van Dijk and Trent Alexander-Arnold - enter the final six months of his deal, it will take give from both sides to agree new terms.

Salah is already the highest-paid player in Reds history, with bonuses taking his weekly wage to what is believed to be around £400,000 a week. He won’t accept a new deal believed to be below his going-rate, but Liverpool won’t overpay the Egyptian or hand out a lengthy contract out of sentimentality either.

When last negotiating an extension back in 2022, Salah’s agent, Ramy Abbas Issa, at one point did not think a new deal would be agreed. When negotiating with one of the very best players in the world, it is always going to be a protracted affair. A repeat this time around is hardly a surprise.

Salah’s team-mates want him to stay at Liverpool. Head coach Arne Slot wants him to stay at Liverpool. Supporters want him to stay at Liverpool too, with all the evidence so far suggesting he still wants the same.

But just how much the Reds and the Egyptian both want their successful partnership to continue, with Saudi Arabia watching on, is about to be put to the test as the clock continues to tick on Salah’s Anfield future.