Al-Ittihad will revisit their interest in Mohamed Salah if they fail to land the Liverpool forward before Thursday’s transfer deadline.
The Saudi Pro League outfit saw a whopping £150million offer for Salah rejected by Liverpool last Friday and are weighing up an improved £200m bid. Liverpool are adamant that the Egyptian is not for sale – no matter the size and scale of the proposal.
And now, according to the Telegraph, sources close Al-Ittihad believe it is too late to get a deal done for Salah, with the Saudi Arabia transfer window slamming shut at 10pm on Thursday.
However, this won’t be the end of Al-Ittihad’s pursuit of Salah. The report claims that the Jeddah-based side are expected to come back in for Salah in future windows if they did not land him this summer.
Al-Ittihad have been busy to add to their squad in the summer transfer window, with Karim Benzema, Fabinho and N’Golo Kante among those to team up with Nuno Espirito Santo. And they wanted Salah to add another piece of quality to their attack as they look to defend the Saudi Pro League title.
As for Salah, he has made no public comment on Al-Ittihad’s interest. But Reds teammate Dominik Szoboszlai did admit that the forward has spoken to the Liverpool dressing room and reassured them he wants to remain part of a close knit team.
“You know it is football, everyone is talking. We are really happy that he has stayed. We are of course speaking between each other but he [Salah] wants to stay, he wants to be here and be with us, and he will stay. We are really happy – we need people in the team like him,” he said on Sunday.
Klopp also spoke about Salah after he scored his first goal of the season in their win over Aston Villa. The Liverpool boss said: “I never had any doubt about his commitment to this club. You can’t imagine how much fuss the world has made but how calm we are with it.
“He is our player and wants to play here. He didn’t tell me [he wants to stay] but he didn’t have to. He speaks with his training and performances and behaviour. We had meetings this week, and the meetings were not about what we did in the past, it was about what we will do in the future.
“Mo was with the players’ [leadership] committee and had his moments where he was talking and it was nothing like ‘by the way, this is only until next week’ or whatever. He is completely here and if Dom said [he’s told players he wants to stay], fine.
“Mo doesn’t have to come into my office and tell me ‘by the way, boss… [I’m not going]’. For me it wasn’t a subject for one second, to be honest, besides the questions from the outside.”
