“The answer would be no,” Jürgen Klopp declared in his press conference this week when asked about speculation regarding Mohamed Salah’s future this summer. The Egyptian, like most elite players in European football, is on the radar of Saudi Arabian clubs, but Liverpool has made the club’s stance clear.
As Fabrizio Romano reported, Al-Ittihad is interested in Salah this summer, and while Liverpool has made it clear he is not for sale, in this market you just never know. Sometimes the sums of money involved become tempting.
After all, Liverpool probably did not expect to lose Fabinho or Jordan Henderson this summer, but the club simply received an offer it could not refuse. In Salah’s case that offer would have to be a world record fee, and significantly bigger than any fee Liverpool had received in the club’s history.
But if such a hefty sum is offered, even this late on in the window, Liverpool would at least have to consider it, and so would Salah. Saudi Arabia has shown its ambition, and it has made an unprecedented dive into the European market luring star assets like Neymar.
Most teams are now full of star-studded squads, and then there are also the lucrative wages on offer, which now makes moving to the Saudi Pro League an appealing prospect.
If it would come to that, which is very unlikely at the moment, Liverpool’s choice to replace Salah should be an obvious candidate who has been on the club’s radar in the past in Jarrod Bowen — a player who is young enough to remain an option even if Salah needed to be replaced next summer or in 2025, when his current contract runs until.
Back in 2021, Klopp admitted in a press conference leading up to Liverpool playing West Ham away that he was a fan of Bowen’s style of play. He is a player who could slot straight in at Anfield.
“I like Bowen a lot,” Klopp said at the time. “He made his way up from Hull and took not too long to show exactly what kind of player he can be in the Premier League. He made big steps.
A left-footed right-winger with quick feet, plenty of pace, and lots of energy to burn, Bowen has everything to be a successful winger on Liverpool’s right flank. At 26 years old he is also in his prime and has been in great form.
He started the Premier League campaign with two goals and one assist in three games. Meanwhile, last season he made 21 goal contributions for West Ham in all competitions, the season before that it was 31. He can score goals and create chances for his teammates as well.
Replacing Salah would virtually be impossible, but Bowen would be a strong candidate to fill the right-wing position. With his contract until 2025, he wouldn’t cost too much either, and Liverpool would then be able to invest the rest of the money available into other problem areas in the squad.
It’s an extremely unlikely scenario at the moment, but at some point, Liverpool will have to approach the tough task of replacing Salah. Ideally, that would still be a while away, but if it was in the next year or two, the best candidate to replace him is undoubtedly Bowen.
