Saudi Pro League director Michael Emenalo has admitted that Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah is a ‘personal favourite’ of his.
The former Nigeria international was installed as the Saudi’s director of football in July, as they embarked on an unprecedented recruitment drive.
Ultimately, Salah ended up being a big part of that drive, as Al Ittihad made a late push to sign him from Liverpool. The Reds stood firm though, with Mo staying and continuing his superb start to the season on Merseyside.
But the feeling is that this will just be temporary reprieve for Liverpool. The Saudis are bound to come again. And in quotes from journalist Fabrizio Romano on Twitter today, Emenalo has virtually confirmed as much.
“Mo is welcomed any time. But nobody is under pressure or forced to come,” Romano reports the Nigerian as saying. “He’s a personal favourite of mine. If people want to come and there’s an opportunity to work with clubs in professional manner, we’ll be very happy to have him.”
At this point, there’s really no need for those connected to the Saudi Pro League to keep on talking about Salah.
Sweet-talking the Liverpool No.11 will surely make no difference to Mo’s eventual decision. Like it or not, this will be a decision based purely on money.
If it’s to do with feeling wanted, then Salah knows he pretty much has a place at Anfield for the rest of his career. He’s universally loved by the fans, his teammates and the manager. There’s no need to go anywhere else.
So, what exactly is the point of Emenalo’s public comments?
As far as we can tell there are two main reasons: firstly, to garner public support from fans in Saudi Arabia that Salah is coming, and secondly, to try to disrupt Liverpool.
The first of those reasons makes some sense, if it isn’t more than a little presumptuous. But the second makes absolutely no ends at all.
As Emenalo points out, for Salah to arrive in Saudi Arabia, it’s going to need Liverpool to play ball. If he and his peers keep coming out with these comments then it’s only going to upset the Reds. There’s no need for it at all. How about let’s get the ball rolling on a new contract instead?
