Paul Merson has claimed Liverpool wouldn't hesitate to re-sign Sadio Mane from Bayern Munich if he was made available for transfer.
The Senegalese called time on his Reds career last summer, joining the Bavarians in a £35m after scoring 120 goals in 269 appearances as he won every major honour during his six seasons Anfield. Currently sidelined with a leg injury that saw him miss last year's World Cup in Qatar, the 30-year-old has still scored 11 goals in 23 appearances since moving to Munich.
Yet Liverpool have struggled in the forward's absence and are currently at real risk of failing to qualify for next season's Champions League. Currently ninth in the Premier League table, they sit 10 points off the top four, have already been eliminated prematurely from both domestic cups and face reigning European champions Real Madrid in the round-of-16 later this month.
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With Luis Diaz, Diogo Jota, and Roberto Firmino all currently out injured, Mohamed Salah struggling for form, and new signings Darwin Nunez and Cody Gakpo still settling in, the Reds have recently been short of a goalscoring threat. And insisting Mane 'didn't get the credit he deserved' at Anfield, Merson claimed Liverpool regret the decision to sell the Senegalese.
"I've been saying it from the start - selling Sadio Mane was a bad decision," he wrote in his weekly Premier League predictions piece for Sportskeeda. "If he came up for sale again, they'd buy him back in an instant.
"He was a massive part of that team and he didn't get the credit he deserved. Liverpool sold one of their best players for hardly any money and it's coming back to bite them."
Mane's total of 11 goals for Bayern is significantly less than Salah's total of 17 for Liverpool so far this season, and only one more than Nunez's return of 10. Meanwhile, he has only scored two more than Firmino, who boasts two few appearances than the Senegalese, while, the Uruguayan has only made two more appearances himself.
Meanwhile, it was Mane's decision to leave Liverpool, with a year left on his contract, as the 30-year-old sought pastures new. With an ageing Reds squad stuck in transition in his absence, Bayern have also not been at their best by their usually high standards this season. Since the World Cup break they have drawn all three Bundesliga matches, and currently lead Union Berlin by a solitary point at the top of the table.
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