First things first, let us invite you in on a couple of running jokes.

Before Mohamed Salah spoke to Mail Sport and a small group of other reporters on Sunday, he had stopped to talk to the written press just twice in his Liverpool career. ‘Fancy two minutes, Mo?,’ we always ask, knowing full well he will smirk, wave and carry on walking.

For comparison, there is also a joke that those regular Reds correspondents speak to some players more often than their own families, with certain stars always willing to give their time and thoughts on the theme of the day.

Standing in the blustery wind and sideways rainfall outside Southampton’s St Mary’s as any semblance of sunlight finished its few hours of work and clocked off for the day, you could forgive reporters for not expecting much in the way of blockbuster quotes.

But then, out trudged Salah. ‘Fancy two minutes, Mo?’ came the question, expecting the usual response. The last time we had got close to a chat was in Philadelphia, where he replied ‘I will talk in pre-season’. It was pre-season. Not just a prolific goal-scorer but a one-liner comedian.

The time before that was in the bowels of West Ham’s London Stadium after a fall-out with Jurgen Klopp. ‘If I speak today, there will be fire,’ he said as he walked past. Those eight words did more traction online than an hour-long sit-down with most footballers.

So Salah knows the weight his words carry and understands how to play the game. As he walked alongside the team bus ready to take the players to Southampton Airport, he clearly had a premeditated message that he wanted to tell the world.

This was him asking the reporters for a chat – not the usual opposite. Salah wanted to be asked about his contract and, although we are not mind-readers, it was clear he was thinking, ‘Come on lads, get to the point’ when he was being warmed up with some questions about the win.

After those introductory questions – he was pleased with his two goals if you were wondering – Mail Sport asked for a contract update. ‘We are almost in December and I haven’t received any offers yet to stay in the club,’ he said. ‘I’m probably more out than in.’

He added that he loved Liverpool and wanted to stay but was disappointed at their lack of progress. It is understood that his long-standing agent, Ramy Abbas, has held talks with the club and senior Anfield sources have stressed these were positive discussions.

But Salah, as clever with his words as he is with his goal-scoring, had a game-plan. He had dangled a carrot to the Liverpool top brass in September when he said this was his last year at Anfield on Sky Sports, and another with an Instagram post saying how much he loved the club.

Neither worked. If we are to take Salah at face value, no new deal is on the table. It is important to say at this juncture that there are three sides to every story and this is no different: Salah’s side, Liverpool’s point of view and, perhaps somewhere in the middle, the truth.

Of course, it is fair for Salah to feel aggrieved that nothing is on the table. Without question, he has been the best player in the Premier League this season – his 12 goals and 10 assists back up that statement – and probably feels he is being mistreated.

Reading between the lines, it is clear Salah has not had any offers from other European sides. He was asked about the Saudi Arabia conundrum – Al Ittihad made a £150million bid in August 2023 – but laughed it off.

What is also clear, though, is that the Egyptian used the media to send a message to Liverpool. It was designed to set alarm bells ringing in Merseyside but also Boston, the home of the owners Fenway Sports Group.

It certainly provoked deafening alarm bells filtering through the fanbase. ‘Quite the morning for you I imagine,’ read one text from a friend who supports Liverpool. ‘Thanks for ruining mine in the process.’

Another reminded Mail Sport of an article we published a fortnight ago weighing up the similarities between Salah and Mookie Betts, the baseball player who was allowed to walk away from the Boston Red Sox by FSG, who also own the American giants.

Betts was their star man, best-paid player and wanted to stay – as he has later confirmed. But no contract was forthcoming so he sailed off into the sunset and joined the Los Angeles Dodgers where he won two World Series championships.

Salah is Liverpool’s best player, highest earner and wants to stay. The parallels are hard to ignore. FSG’s head of football Michael Edwards has a long-standing policy to not extend deals for ageing players but this player surely represents a reason for exemption.

Clearly, Salah’s words have sent shockwaves throughout the footballing world, right from team-mates waiting on the bus – who were said to be shocked to see him stroll over to reporters – to TV networks in Egypt who were running round-the-clock coverage on their biggest export.

Sources close to the club have insisted that they were never expecting a speedy conclusion to any contract deal given Salah’s status at the club. But the fact he is into his six months with no resolution in sight is a reason for concern.

Despite all this, though, as several sources in the game said on Sunday, Salah’s representative Abbas is in conversations with Liverpool. Only a fool would think the club are just letting the contract run out with a degree of ignorance.

When the tapes had been turned off and cameras stopped rolling, captain Virgil van Dijk joined Salah and you could see in the Dutchman’s face that he was as surprised as us reporters that the star forward had stopped for a natter.

Salah finished by saying he wanted to play for many years, before pointing at Van Dijk and saying ‘with this man’. While the headline of this saga is enough to send a shiver down the spine of Liverpool fans, the finer details mean their fears should not be overly foreboding.

Van Dijk, of course, is in the same boat as Salah. His deal feels a bit easier to thrash out, while fellow out-of-contract star Trent Alexander-Arnold still has an unsolved future ahead of Liverpool’s meeting with the team who are courting him, Real Madrid, this week.

For all the praise that boss Arne Slot is entitled to in guiding the Reds to eight points clear in the Premier League and top of the pile in the Champions League table, there are three elephants in the room that are not going away with these unsolved contract issues.

But after his PR exercise, Salah is now the one that will worry Liverpool fans the most. His statistics this season have strengthened his hand at the negotiating table, with Sunday’s brace taking him up to 300 club career goals, including 100 in away games for the Reds.

The problem is he has not sat down at said negotiating table. Hughes and Edwards are strong men and will not care much for outside noise but, following Salah’s comments, the negativity is getting louder and it feels they should be booking in a sit down with the Egyptian when they can.