Reports of Liverpool forward Mohamed Salah’s move to Saudi Arabia gained momentum as the European transfer market was coming to a close.
Al-Ittihad, which includes Karim Benzema and Fabinho, was strongly interested and presented a first offer, said to total £150 million.
Liverpool’s stance never changed, the Egyptian King is not for sale, and with the transfer market ending at the end of August and no successor in place, no matter what amount of money is offered, Jurgen Klopp will not give the GO signal.
Despite the fact that the possibility of going to the Middle East is fading by the day, Al-Ittihad has not given up. According to Ben Jacobs, while reporting the possibility of a late move, he has a negative view on Mohamed Salah’s move to the Middle East this summer.
“The Saudi top-flight window closes on September 7. That means we might see a late flurry of business in the next few days,”
“There has been a lot of talk about Mo Salah making a late move to Al-Ittihad. Liverpool’s stance remains that the Egyptian striker is not for sale.”
“An Al-Ittihad delegation is in London, though. They don’t want to give up and could table a second bid of around £200m. But it remains to be seen whether this will be simply to make a splash or because they genuinely think they stand a chance.”
“Al-Ittihad want to push now because they would love to have him play in this year’s Club World Cup in Jeddah. But also there is no guarantee they will be the allocated club for Salah in 2024 because of now these type of deals work.”
“Al-Hilal is also a possibility. The Riyadh-based club had Salah on a wish list alongside Messi and their now new signing Neymar. And by landing Neymar they didn’t explore Salah this window. Al-Ahli may also be considered as well next summer.”
“So whereas Saudi dealmakers have a low confidence anything is possible with Salah, senior figures at Al-Ittihad would still prefer to not give up.”
“I would also be wary of just presuming a massive package means Liverpool would pocket all the money. I am told a significant proportion of the offer Al-Ittihad have discussed includes Club World Cup incentives that may not be that gettable. It is easy to use these to inflate the price a bit higher.”
“Either way it’s incredible money, but Liverpool can’t replace Salah and have said throughout August they don’t want to sell. It will be extremely unexpected if that changes in the next 48 hours.”
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