A consistent and loved Mohamed Salah will be a great signing

He hasn’t even inked his Liverpool contract yet and already we’re being told that Mohamed Salah has the potential to become one of the world’s greatest players and that he actually wanted to sign for us and not Chelsea back in 2014. While the same journos that waxed lyrical when we signed Lazar Marković big up Salah as the next best thing, I’ll take a more cautious approach.

As a Roma shareholder, I obviously watch the Italian outfit as much as possible. I’ve paid close attention to Salah because he was one of the many ‘ones that got away’. His stats are impressive, as were Stewart Downings before we signed him, the difference, of course, is that it’s Jürgen Klopp that wants to sign him and I have faith in this Liverpool manager.

What I have learnt from watching Salah is that on his day he poses a real threat. But if he can’t be arsed, you’ll get nothing from him. Zero. Nada. Zilch,

Although nobody competed with Liverpool for Salah’s signature, I believe Salah will be a success at Anfield. I think Klopp and the Liverpool faithful will get the best out of him. Both will play a part in making him feel loved and wanted, something he never felt while at Stamford Bridge with Chelsea.

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Liverpool refused to pay a reasonable asking price for him 3 years ago. 3 years later they’re playing 3 times as much to sign him. That sounds like the sort of gaff that you’d expect our present owners to oversee. That was a huge mistake but there is a positive, today he’s 3 times better the player he was than when he was at Basel. I’m just trying to convince myself that the fee is acceptable.

So where will he play? I expect Salah will be deployed on the right with Sadio Mané switching to the left. If we see a consistent Salah settle at Liverpool, supporters could be in for a real treat with this promising duo on the flanks.

I do have one complaint, though. I won’t like it if he’s handed the No.9 shirt. I’m old skool. The No.9 should be for the best striker at the club. I’m not convinced by Divock Origi and I often think that I’d be able to put more minutes in than Daniel Sturridge. Admittedly a crash team would need to be at the side of the pitch just in case but in fairness, I’d probably require less medical attention than Sturridge. Danny Ings excites me more than both of those two and although the boss likes to deploy Firmino in the centre of the attack, I was hoping that we would splash the cash on a proven, clinical striker. The No.9 should be for an Ian Rush, a Robbie Fowler, a Fernando Torres. I know, I know, it doesn’t really matter but I’m desperate for us to sign a deadly striker regardless.

When it appeared that talks between Roma and Liverpool had broken down, if you followed my content on the KopTalk members’ website or KopTalk.TV, my free YouTube channel, you will have known that I remained confident of signing him. The same still applies with Virgil van Dijk. The minute Liverpool issued a statement stating our interest in the player had ended, I insisted that this was merely a tactical move. I believe our interest in the transfer valuation had ended but not our interest in the player. If that fee can be negotiated down, I expect Van Dijk to follow Salah to Anfield.

YNWA

Duncan Oldham
KopTalk Editor

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