In what is quite possibly a blatant PR move to try and appease fans, Liverpool have reportedly offered Mahmadou Sakho a new and improved contract. Reports have emerged this week which suggested that the Frenchman was on his way out of Anfield with Roma and Bayer Leverkusen both making bids for the centre half.
Those bids were rejected but it seemed likely that it was only a matter of time before he was out the door considering he was left out of Monday's squad to face Bournemouth with Kolo Toure taking a place on the bench. That would suggest that Sakho is Brendan Rodgers' fourth choice central defender with Dejan Lovren and Martin Skrtel beginning the season as his first choice pairing.
He may look less than comfortable playing the ball out from the back but Sakho is very much a fan favourite at Anfield and his seemingly imminent move out of Anfield has not gone down well. The rumours have been that Lovren was a Rodgers led signing while Sakho was down to the near mythical transfer committee. As a result, the story has been that the Liverpool manager has been keen to make a success of the former Southampton man at the expense of Sakho's place in the team.
Whether that is entirely true or not remains to be seen but in light of those suggestions it is quite surprising that the Liverpool Echo are reporting that Sakho has been offered a new long term contract worth £100,000 a week, which is £25,ooo more than he is earning at the moment.
In truth, something seems strange here. Rodgers has as much as stated that Lovren and Skrtel would be his first choice pairing. Sakho is not going to be happy sitting on the bench while Liverpool are unlikely to offer that kind of a deal to a squad player.
So, either Sakho will soon be back in the starting XI or the club are setting up a PR spin along the lines of 'we offered him a contract but he didn't want to sign, best to get rid'. We'll wait and see how this one plays out.
