Liverpool are braced for a world-record £215million offer from Al-Ittihad for Mohamed Salah ahead of the Saudi transfer deadline on Thursday.
Salah, 31, has been heavily linked with a move to the Middle East in recent weeks and Al-Ittihad saw a huge £150m bid turned down by the Reds in the final hours of the English transfer window last week.
Jurgen Klopp has insisted that his talisman is not for sale at any price and that there is no chance the Egyptian superstar will be leaving Anfield this summer, but that hasn’t prevented Al-Ittihad from preparing a new and improved bid.
According to The Sun, Salah’s suitors are set to lodge a new bid which will exceed the current world-record transfer fee with add-ons before Thursday. It is believed such a proposal would be worth around £215m to the Reds.
Anfield favourite Jamie Carragher admitted last week that although he was reluctant to entertain the idea of selling Salah, his former club simply could not afford to turn down a bid in excess of £200m for his services.
Carragher told Sky Sports: “When you look at what Harry Kane went for, about £100m, and he is a year or two younger but he only had a year to go on his deal at Spurs. Salah has two years to go, he looks after himself really well. For Liverpool to sell now, they aren’t going to want what he is worth, they will want more than that.
“He wouldn’t be worth £150m without the Saudi market, probably closer to £100m. But why have they left it so late? If they wanted him so badly, and they were prepared to spend the money, why didn’t they do it six months ago when they might have got him?
“It is up to Liverpool and it is up to Salah, he may not want to go. I think even for supporters who love him and don’t want him to move, if that number keeps going up and up, there is a stage where they can’t turn it down, and that would be £200m.”
While it remains to be seen if Liverpool would be able to resist a world-record offer for Salah, the fact that they would be unable to sign a replacement until January would be a huge caveat to any potential deal.
Salah only penned a new three-year deal with Liverpool last summer to put an end to speculation over his future following transfer links to Real Madrid. The forward has scored 188 goals in just 309 appearances for the Reds since moving to Anfield in 2017.
