Here's your Liverpool FC morning headlines for Sunday, June 26.
Chelsea might have just put Liverpool's perfect Mohamed Salah replacement up for sale
Picture the scene. Liverpool are interested in signing a forward after frequent speculation and initial contact is made. However, they don’t get a deal done and said forward joins Chelsea.
However, said forward then flops at Stamford Bridge and leaves after a couple of seasons, before moving to Anfield and becoming one of the best players in the world. Sound familiar? It should do.
That is exactly what happened with Mohamed Salah, with Liverpool first looking to sign the Egyptian when he was still with Basel back in January 2014. They had been the front-runners to sign the forward too, only to fail to agree a deal with the Swiss outfit and allowing Chelsea to beat them to his signature by completing an £11m transfer.
READ MORE: Jurgen Klopp has already strengthened his Liverpool midfield this summer without anyone realising
Yet, the Egypt international’s move to Stamford Bridge did not go to plan as he struggled for first team opportunities and made just 13 Premier League appearances. After a year at the club, he was sent on loan to Fiorentina, with a temporary move to Roma following in summer in 2015.
Successfully rebuilding his reputation in Serie A, the move to the eternal city was made permanent in the summer of 2016. A year later, after another prolific campaign for Roma, he moved back to the Premier League with Liverpool. And the rest, as they say is history. But could it be about to happen again?
Liverpool were heavily linked with Timo Werner throughout the 2019/20 season and he reportedly even held talks with Jurgen Klopp, with the Reds expected to make a move for him that summer to take advantage of a £47.5 million release clause in his RB Leipzig contract. The Germany international even spoke publicly about his admiration for Klopp and his side in the midst of such speculation.
But then the coronavirus pandemic struck, football was postponed and Liverpool’s transfer plans had to change. Keeping their powder dry due to the financial ramifications of the global crisis, they were left unable to move for Werner in June 2020, as Chelsea instead swooped in to activate his release clause.
Read the full story HERE.
'I have to confess' - Robbie Fowler makes Mohamed Salah contract claim after Liverpool 'calculations'
Kop hero Robbie Fowler has offered his own insight on Mohamed Salah's Liverpool future as the Egyptian star rolls into the final 12 months of his current deal.
Salah enjoyed another stellar season for the Reds, finishing joint Premier League top goalscorer and picking up the PFA Footballer of the Year award. But as things stand, the global superstar will be a free agent this time next year and unless he signs a new contract in the coming months his incredible Liverpool career will be over. Furthermore, he will have followed fellow Anfield great Sadio Mane out of the exit door - something that would rightly concern supporters.
But Fowler, who's prolific return for the Reds saw him nicknamed 'God' by the Kop in the 1990s, thinks that the Reds will still be weighing up the likely return on any future investment - as they did with Mane - should they even consider coming close to agreeing a deal that would satisfy Salah's wage demands.
Writing in his column for the Mirror, Fowler said: "I won’t pretend to know what’s going on with his contract, but clearly the answer is: nothing much. And that leaves so many questions unanswered. One thing is obvious, the club has done some very clear, precise and unemotional calculations with Mane. He’s 31 in April, has a huge amount of running in his legs, and wanted a huge contract as one of the best players in the world.
"I don’t blame him for that. Mane is the equal of virtually every world class star at the moment, and rightly wanted that recognition with the going rate for the last big contract of his career. What Liverpool so obviously did though, was run their analytics - which to their credit they do so well - and decided selling him to buy Darwin Nunez and keep their wage structure in place was the right thing for the club. It begs the question, what calculations have they run on Salah?
"Again, I don’t know all the answers, but what screams out to me so clearly, is they won’t be breaking their wage structure to keep him. If they were prepared to do that, it would have happened by now. But look, I can’t blame Salah for wanting the going rate, just like Mane did. He’s the Premier League Golden Boot winner, he’s the Footballer of the Year and in with a great shout of the Ballon d’Or top three.
"What salary does a player in the top three in the world command? He obviously believes it’s more than Liverpool are offering. But if my old club are running complex calculations, then so too is Salah - and it can never be a precise science. I think him saying no matter what happens with his contract, he’ll be at Anfield next year was clearly a threat."
Read the full story HERE.
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Alan Shearer 'certain' about Liverpool signing as Man City message sent
