Given his remarkable Premier League return in the month of August, it’s fair to say this is not how Liverpool or Mohamed Salah expected his name to make the headlines ahead of the bank holiday weekend.
In the last few days, the 31-year-old Egyptian has become the latest player to be teased with the riches of the Saudi Pro League, with the Public Investment Fund-backed Al-Ittihad reportedly looking to make a sensational swoop for the forward ahead of next week’s transfer deadline.
Reports of the Saudi champions’ interest in Salah escalated on Thursday afternoon. However, the ECHO understands that Liverpool are in no mood to entertain the departure of the talismanic Egyptian, who is under contract at Anfield for a further two seasons.
Even at 31, Salah clearly still has plenty to offer Liverpool. Of course, it was only on Saturday afternoon – during the 3-1 victory over Bournemouth – that he moved ahead of Reds legend Steven Gerrard in the all-time scoring charts with his 187th strike for the club.
And while Gerrard may have controversially swapped the beaches of Formby for the sand dunes of Dammam earlier this summer as he cashed in on an eye-watering offer from Al Ettifaq, Salah, it would appear, still has more chapters of his Liverpool tale to pen before he perhaps follows in the footsteps of fellow Anfield royalty.
“I’m totally devastated,” said the Egyptian back in May, shortly after Liverpool’s fifth-placed Premier League finish was confirmed. “There’s absolutely no excuse for this. We had everything we needed to make it to next year’s Champions League and we failed.
“We are Liverpool and qualifying to the competition is the bare minimum. I am sorry but it’s too soon for an uplifting or optimistic post. We let you and ourselves down.”
Such a defiant response doesn’t sound like somebody ready to ditch the building of the second, great team of Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool tenure for the surroundings of the Saudi Pro League.
From Liverpool’s perspective though, as was the case with the sales of both Jordan Henderson and Fabinho, it would’ve been naive not to sound out a valuation for a player who currently commands a salary in the region of £350,000 per week, turns 32 next summer and is close to approaching the halfway stage of what could be his final Anfield contract.
But what the departures of both aforementioned midfielders proved, as the Reds’ search for a holding midfielder took a considerable left-field turn, is that the grass isn’t always greener. And even with the offering of a boosted transfer kitty, sometimes it is simply better to stick rather than twist.
That was established earlier this month when Liverpool tabled a British record bid in the region of £110m for Brighton & Hove Albion’s Moises Caicedo, who later snubbed a move to Anfield in favour of a move to Chelsea. Such a decision did not come as a surprise to Anfield officials, who had initially held off making a swoop for the Ecuadorian due to his longing for a move to King’s Road.
Nevertheless, it was the days that followed that demonstrated just how problematic it can be to fill the Saudi-sized void in a squad as Liverpool’s eleventh-hour search for a holding midfielder saw them ditch their buy-to-grow policy and settle on a deal for VfB Stuttgart captain Wataru Endo.
And even though the Liverpool manager had been delighted with his capture of the midfielder, and revealed he was quickly inundated with celebratory messages from his homeland, the fact that Endo boasts no European experience at the age of 30 indicates that he is used to operating at a significantly lower level than Liverpool’s Champions League and Premier League-winning Fabinho, who enjoyed a three-year spell as the best in class across Europe.
And with the luxury of hindsight, it looks fair to say Liverpool have regressed in that department this summer.
Now, after being impaired by last month’s Saudi riches, it would be reckless of Liverpool to believe they could unearth someone of Salah’s quality with less than seven days of the transfer window remaining.
Not to mention the unnerving idea of identifying a long-term replacement for the Egyptian at a time when owners Fenway Sports Group are yet to settle on a long-lasting heir to Michael Edwards’ sporting director throne, whose remarkable work during his six-year stint in the role saw Anfield quickly become the envy of Europe. Evidently, this isn’t the time for Liverpool to be making sweeping changes.
And for all that has changed at Anfield in recent years, Salah’s goals have been the one constant. Liverpool can’t afford for that to change this summer.
