Mohamed Salah’s still waiting for his dream World Cup debut as he sat out of Egypt’s opening game against Uruguay earlier today.

His club side, Liverpool, could be braced for summer offers for the gifted forward after he enjoyed a stunning first season at Anfield.

Spanish giants FC Barcelona could be a team that tests Jurgen Klopp’s resolve as they need to look elsewhere after being snubbed by Antoine Griezmann.

The French internationalist was heavily linked with a summer move to the Camp Nou but the forward announced yesterday that he was going to stay with current side Atletico Madrid instead.

The Catalan side will probably be on the lookout for a new superstar attacker next term.

Luis Suarez had a bit of an iffy campaign last year and Ousmane Dembele hasn’t been an instant hit since his big transfer last summer. Paco Alcacer looks set to depart after struggling to get to into the first team and Munir hasn’t set the world on light with his recent loan moves.

Mo Salah could be a sensational signing as he would come in and offer world class talent.

At Liverpool, he’s used to playing in a fluid front three and while that wasn’t used as much under Ernesto Valverde it was a favoured formation when Neymar was still at the club.

Having Lionel Messi on the left and Salah on the right, might see a return to form from Suarez. It would certainly be an attacking threesome that would strike fear into most of the defences in world football.

Salah is also fast becoming one of the world’s most marketable players and that will no doubt attract the interest of Barca and their old rivals Real Madrid.

His stunning performances have seen him being linked with the Ballon d’Or award, the last man to win that award that didn’t play for the big two of La Liga was Cristiano Ronaldo back during his Manchester United days in 2008!

There’s obviously a few issues that stand in the way of a deal being done.

Liverpool and Klopp won’t want to sell their top player to anyone. They’ll believe that they are on the cusp of great things and to achieve their goals they need to keep the best in their squad and bring in better players themselves. They certainly don’t need the money.

Say Salah decides he would prefer to join Barca,and there’s nothing to suggest that’s true, that doesn’t mean that he’ll be sold. Look at the transfer saga between the Reds and Barcelona when it came to Philippe Coutinho. The Anfield side’s hierarchy didn’t sell until they felt the time was right, they’ll be even more determined not to sell to Los Cules this time around.

The player himself has stated he’s happy at Anfield:

“There’s something very special about playing for Liverpool,”

A possible carrot of including Dembele in any deal could at least interest Klopp. The German is a known fan of the former Borussia Dortmund man but I’m not sure he’d be happy to let Salah go just to get Ousmane in.

Another problem would be England’s new transfer window. Instead of closing at the end of August, it will now shut at the start of the month. That means that the English Premier League sides need to do all their purchases before then and Liverpool won’t sell a top forward after that date. So it’s a very short window for Barca’s moneymen to get a huge transfer done.

If I were to guess then I’d think that Mohamed Salah will sign a new deal with Liverpool and stay in Merseyside for at least another full season.

But let’s be honest, nothing stops Barcelona from trying to engineer moves for players and trying everything to unsettle them. If I were Liverpool I’d be braced for some big bids this transfer window and plenty of dark PR arts coming out of the Spanish media!

Posted on June 15th, 2018 by scott
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