Because our owners are cheapskates and Salah wants a lot of money. Discussions are ongoing, hopefully an agreement can be made.
It might cost a lot to pay Salah but it will cost a lot more to pay a transfer fee for somebody who can replicate his numbers, if such a player even exists in the current game.
Definitely it’s clear Salah wants alot of money and with the likes of Saudi pro league clubs having him on their radar I think Liverpool will have to pay him much higher than he collects now to fend off that interest, basically it will be costly to actually get a player of his caliber now in world football. Also the fact that there is no guarantee that they can get the best of that player still, for now we take aside the age and let them handover him at least two more years with a reasonable amount. Although they might have to do it strategically because the other two players in persons of Van Dijke and Arnold will like to have wages around that level too.
These are good examples. I would also recall how Bayern did not want to extend Lewandowski's contract for more than a year (even though Lewandowski was in great shape) and in the end they parted ways. Yes, apparently Liverpool management believes that Salah is already a spent force and is looking for promising options that will definitely not require replacement in the next year or two. It's a tough business.
Bayern’s case with Lewandowski was definitely way different. Lewandowski didn’t want to renew not because of the wages but wanted to move because Bayern Munich had actually increased his wages, his refusal made Bayern to cash in on to Barcelona so they don’t lose him for free, Salah wants a new contract but the club isn’t looking to pay him that much