Liverpool wave away €175 million offer for Salah!
Sky Sports reports that Al-Ittihad are preparing a new £200 million bid the Reds have rejected a verbal offer of £150 million. “We have to protect the game,” Klopp said in today’s press conference.
The message is clear - Liverpool are not even contemplating the idea of selling Mohamed Salah - not even for all the money in the world. There in no way that the Reds would agree to let one of their star players leave on the last day of the transfer window, leaving themselves hours to find a replacement.
Karim Benzema’s team Al-Ittihad have been on Salah’s trail for the past few days, but Anfield officials insist that the Egyptian, who is under contract until June 2025, is staying where he is. To the point of bluntly rejecting an exorbitant offer from the Saudis just a few hours before the European transfer window (but not the Saudi one), closes.
As reported exclusively by The Athletic: “Liverpool have rejected a verbal offer from the Saudi Pro League to sign Mohamed Salah. The proposal, valued at over £100m plus significant add-ons worth up to £150m, was not taken into consideration and was immediately rejected.”
Hands off Mo
“Mohamed Salah is not for sale” was the phrase most repeated by Jürgen Klopp in the last press conferences, so the German coach used it again in the appearance prior to this weekend’s league game against Aston Villa: “The position remains absolutely the same. So are the things. There is nothing more to say. As far as I know, there are no offers.” And it is that it was not until Friday morning when the “approach made on behalf of Al-Ittihad during a friendly call to FSG president Mike Gordon, on Thursday night” was made known in England.
Salah renewed with Liverpool last summer for three more seasons (until 2025), becoming the highest-paid player in the club’s history with a salary close to £350,000 per week, but Al-Ittihad intended to bathe the Egyptian, who is the fifth top scorer in Liverpool’s history, in gold. Sky Sports reported earlier this week that, in addition to putting a £100 million offer on Liverpool’s negotiating table, the Saudis would offer around 1.5 million euros to Mohamed Salah.
This time, it seems that the European club has won the game against the Saudis. Klopp however, appeared uneasy during today’s press conference in the face of the “threat” posed by the irruption of these clubs and their money: “I don’t know how long it will continue like this, but I think that in the next two weeks you will see how difficult it is. Nobody can react anymore (if they lose players). We have to protect the game.” However, The Athletic warn that “the Saudis do not share that opinion and it is expected that they will maintain a strong interest”.
By Friday evening, according to sources close to Sky Sports, Al-Ittihad are believed to be preparing a new bid and are willing to up their previous offer to £200 million. That would eclipse the €222 million that Paris Saint-Germain paid for Neymar in 2017 - the current world transfer record.
The Liverpool coach, who has seen how this summer Jordan Henderson, Fabinho and Roberto Firmino have been lured to the Saudi Pro League, acknowledged that he loves “all my players who went to Saudi Arabia, but the league is not going to distract me from my television habits. We have to make sure that the European leagues remain as strong as they are. Maybe we can slightly change some rules or laws? We are all surprised by the activity of Saudi Arabia. It seems more like a threat than not.”
New Thiago setback
Apart from Salah’s continuity and analyzing the situation of European clubs with respect to Saudi money, the German coach had other news to comment on during his press conference. Several of them, negative. Faced with the return to the group of the Spanish Stefan Bajcetic and the loss for the league duel this weekend of Ibrahima Konaté, Klopp gave an update on the new setback suffered by Thiago Alcântara in his recovery.
One area which Klopp was not willing to discuss was the reports that Ryan Gravenberch was undergoing a medical with the club.
Thiago: “He had a little setback after starting training with the team. You have to slow down a little. It’s not good for him or for us. Hopefully after the international break (he will be back)”.
Ryan Gravenberch and the last day of the market: “We can’t talk about it (the signing of Ryan Gravenberch) because nothing has really happened yet. If something happens, we can talk about it on Sunday. It’s the last day of the market, so I don’t want to kill people’s excitement, so you never know, but I’m busy with other things today.”