Arne Slot has reiterated Liverpool's hope of tying down Mohamed Salah to a new contract at Anfield, saying he is not surprised to hear of interest from the Saudi Pro League. Salah is inside the final six months of his contract and is free to speak to clubs outside of England about joining as a free agent at the end of the campaign.

Saudi's sports minister, Prince Abdulaziz bin Turki Al-Faisal detailed in an interview that aired on Thursday evening how much he would love to bring Salah to the SPL.

However, after being informed of those comments, Slot said it would be more of a shock if Salah was not of interest to Saudi Arabia in his Friday morning press conference, but repeated Liverpool's stance that they are actively working to extend the Egypt captain's stay on Merseyside.

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"It would be a surprise if anyone, wherever around the world, said they didn't want Mo Salah!" Slot said. "He has done so well for so many years that everyone probably wants him, and he has done so well without my advice for a long time, so he can probably keep doing what is best for his career, even without my advice.

"But my advice would be different to the one you just mentioned (Saudi sports minister). What I mean by different is everyone wants him, including us. We want him to extend [his contract] of course, as well, that is clear.

"So I am not surprised that somebody wants him. I would not be surprised if other countries as well. He has done so many smart things in his career, so he will make the right decision in his career for himself and hopefully us as well.

Slot added: "The answer is of course I speak to these players (Virgil van Dijk, Salah, Trent Alexander-Arnold) I speak with them, not everyday like Richard (Hughes, sporting director), but quite a lot. And it would be ridiculous that in all the times I have spoken to these players, we have never spoken about the future.

"So of course we do [speak about their futures] but as you also probably know, that is not something I am going to discuss with you what we were talking about. But it is also not just with those three who are out of contract you also talk about future things with the other players as well.

"It is a non-stop process talking to the other players but it's a process that I will not talk about publicly with you."

In an interview with Piers Morgan Uncensored, which was aired on YouTube Thursday night, the Saudi sports minister said: “Definitely, because if [Salah] ticks all the right boxes, even for us, we’d love to have him.

“We feel like we are one with the Egyptians, from our culture and our history and so on. So to have Mo Salah or other players that are good role models would be a pleasure and a privilege to have in the Saudi League. Will it happen or not? That’s up to the clubs to decide and to see what negotiations go on.”