'Free to sign wherever he wants:" Arsene Wenger discusses Liverpool target's prospects but '£413k wages a major issue

Arsene Wenger expects reported Liverpool target Kylian Mbappe will leave PSG as his contract is set to expire at the end of the season with no sign of being renewed.

"Time is against PSG," he told Canal+ via Marca. "In my experience, when you try to renew a player then the longer it takes the more difficult it becomes.

"I've been waiting a year and a half for PSG to manage to renew Mbappe. He is the most indispensable player in PSG's way of playing.

“But, there is little time left and today the footballer is free to sign wherever he wants. PSG were in a situation where they had a firm offer from Real Madrid. When you reject 180 million euros, even for PSG it still is a huge sum.

"So, when they refused this money, they either said to themselves 'We need to have a great season, as we have [Lionel] Messi and we can't afford to lose Mbappe' or they thought 'we will manage to convince him to stay'."

Liverpool must overhaul wage structure in order to sign Kylian Mbappe

When you consider that Fenway Sports Group are currently refusing to meet Mohamed Salah's demands over a potential £400,000 per week extension, signing Mbappe is essentially an impossibility.

That's in spite of everything Salah has done for the club from scoring 44 goals in his debut season to winning the Champions League in his second campaign at Anfield and following that up with a Premier League triumph in his third year on Merseyside.

The Egyptian has done everything you could possibly do to warrant a massive contract like the one he's demanding.

So why would FSG give Mbappe a contract that would be astronomically higher than that even before he's done anything to aid Liverpool's ambitions?

PSG reportedly pay the French forward £413,000 per week which is already more than what Salah and his agent are asking for and even if Mbappe only wanted a 20% increase to join the Reds, that would require FSG to pay him £495,000/week or a total of £25.7million per season.

That's likely before bonuses and agent fees although his family takes care of his affairs so it won't be on the same scale as Erling Haaland's agent's demands, with Mino Raiola looking to be paid £34m in agent's fees to facilitate his client's transfer business.

A move for Mbappe doesn't make sense unless FSG plans to overhaul their entire transfer model and wage structure.