Whatever the figures on the table, Liverpool were prepared to hold firm and keep Mohamed Salah beyond the 10pm UK deadline set by the Saudi Pro League. A verbal offer worth up to £150 million was swiftly rejected by Mike Gordon, president of the club’s owners Fenway Sports Group, a week previous and suggestions of a world-record bid were given similarly short shrift.

By Jack Lusby, ThisIsAnfield.com

The timing of Al-Ittihad’s push to sign Salah, which dominated the final hours of the Premier League’s transfer window and kept Sky Sports and the tabloid press ticking over in the six days to follow, was questionable, particularly given accusations of sportwashing amid a summer of heavy spending from the Middle East.

But that, in Liverpool’s eyes, was besides the point: put simply, Salah was and is irreplaceable, with no sum of money worth losing him on deadline day with no chance of signing an adequate successor. Instead, despite the possibility of raking in £200 million for a 31-year-old with two years left on his contract, the club resolved it would be worth more to keep him at Anfield.

This is, after all, a player who has scored 188 times in just 306 appearances since his £43.9 million move from AS Roma in 2017, breaking countless records on the way to fifth spot among the club’s all-time leading goalscorers.

Not only that, but Salah is a player whose creativity is becoming a more crucial aspect of Liverpool’s play. In the first four games of the Premier League season, he has already created four big chances – at least three more than any of his team-mates – while he tops Trent Alexander-Arnold and Dominik Szoboszlai (both 0.5) in terms of expected assists with 0.6.

In each of the past three seasons he has struck 30 or more goals while in each of the past two he has assisted 15 or more for team-mates. Already this campaign, Salah has two goals and two assists in four appearances, leading the Liverpool squad again.

Losing him at any point in the window would have been a seismic blow to Liverpool’s confidence and structure; a player they have relied upon for so long and who has grown into a leader among Jürgen Klopp’s squad, even if he has rarely been handed the captain’s armband and was overlooked in favour of Alexander-Arnold when it came to the decision over Virgil van Dijk’s vice-captain.

Losing Salah on deadline day would have been fatal; losing him after the English deadline due to the overhanging Saudi Pro League transfer window would have been somehow even worse.

Beyond the impact on the squad, any sale of Salah would come at a significant off-field risk, too, not least due to the prize money his goals have helped accrue – Liverpool’s run to the Champions League final in 2022, for example, brought in £106 million alone. Moreover, his marketability as one of the world’s best players and one of the most famous Arabic sportsmen is as beneficial to those on Merseyside as it would be those in Jeddah.

So FSG certainly deserve credit for not bowing to the financial pressure of a club backed by the Saudi royal family, and with both the player and his usually vocal agent keeping quiet amid speculation.

There is a growing acceptance that Salah will eventually be sold, though, despite the Egyptian himself expressing a desire to remain at Anfield for the rest of his career prior to signing a new three-year contract in 2022.

“If you ask me, I would love to stay until the last day of my football career,” he told Sky Sports during negotiations. The revamp of the Saudi Pro League, and subsequent, big-money moves from the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo, Karim Benzema, Neymar, Riyad Mahrez and former team-mates Sadio Mané, Roberto Firmino, Fabinho and Jordan Henderson, may have changed things since then.

At the time, there were few options open to Salah, particularly as he claimed he couldn’t see himself “ever playing against Liverpool,” with the pool likely limited to Paris Saint-Germain and Real Madrid. Now, any of those sides owned by the Public Investment Fund – Al-Ittihad, Al-Ahli, Al-Nassr and Al Hilal – represent feasible destinations for a player who would arrive as the biggest of all draws.

There is also a growing feeling that next summer will be the right time for Liverpool to allow their legendary No. 11 to move on, particularly if similar offers are presented to them. By the end of the current campaign, Salah will be 32 and with 12 months remaining on a club-record contract worth £350,000 a week. A decision will be required over whether to present him with a new and likely significantly improved deal, sell or allow the player to stay for a final season before departing on a free transfer. At that point, it may no longer make sense for FSG to retain their asset regardless of the financial incentives tied to keeping him.

In a way, then, in rejecting Al-Ittihad, Liverpool have bought time to plot a succession plan. They cannot leave themselves in the position with Salah that they found themselves in when Henderson and Fabinho departed in the summer just gone, when they were forced into reactive, rather than proactive, signings. Whether Salah is to leave or not, recruitment staff should be tasked with identifying his replacement long before he moves on.

That may be easier said than done, with the likes of Jarrod Bowen (West Ham), Michael Olise (Crystal Palace), Johan Bakayoko (PSV Eindhoven) and Moussa Diaby (Aston Villa) floated as early possibilities – along with, of course, Kylian Mbappe. There are certainly options out there, with those mentioned all convincing cases along with the likes of Brentford’s Bryan Mbeumo and Real Sociedad’s Takefusa Kubo, but the reality is that there are few, if any, who directly measure up to Salah. There has long been a sense that Liverpool would prefer to nurture his successor in house, with Kaide Gordon before his 19-month injury layoff and Ben Doak now breaking through, but would either be ready to make the step up by 2024?

Napoli’s Khvicha Kvaratskhelia may be the prime candidate, but even he is a more natural left winger, a position for which Liverpool already boast Luis Díaz, Darwin Núñez, Diogo Jota and Cody Gakpo as options.

The presence of those four could, however, serve as evidence of the succession plan already in effect – or, more appropriately, another solution to filling the void if Salah were to move on.

Few players are capable of producing in front of goal as consistently as Salah has for Liverpool, and therefore the best route may be to replace him in the aggregate. If there are no players on the market who can score 30 or more goals every season, Klopp will for example need two who can score 20 or more or three who can score 15 or more, every season, to adapt, evolve and improve.

In Núñez, Gakpo, Jota and Díaz, that may already be the case, while the development of Dominik Szoboszlai in the right-sided midfield role could provide another fix. But a player like Mbeumo, Bakayoko or, ideally, Kvaratskhelia would still be required to cover the losses if Salah departed.

Fortunately, Liverpool’s ferocity in talks with Al-Ittihad has ensured the luxury of time to put the pieces in place – as whether in January, next summer or even in 2025, eventually Salah will need to be replaced.

(Images from IMAGO)

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Buried in the ludicrous, baffling logic of Jordan Henderson’s recent interview with The Athletic, in which he attempted to explain his decision to leave Liverpool for the riches of Saudi Arabia and Al Ettifaq while sacrificing the reputation built up over 12 years on Merseyside, there was an element of black comedy.

By Jack Lusby, ThisIsAnfield.com

“I won’t go into detail about the conversation because it’s private, but it put me in a position where I knew that I wasn’t going to be playing as much,” he said of a conversation with Jürgen Klopp in pre-season that “sent alarm bells ringing” over his role. “I knew there were going to be new players coming in my position.”

Henderson later added: “That’s not to say that they forced me out of the club or they were saying they wanted me to leave but at no point did I feel wanted by the club or anyone to stay.”

Having arrived at Liverpool’s AXA Training Centre for the start of preparations for what would be his 13th season with the club, after working tirelessly to improve his physique during the off-season, he was greeted by the eager smile of Dominik Szoboszlai.

Arriving on the same day of pre-season, the two midfielders could not have been in more contrasting situations.

A £60 million signing from RB Leipzig, the Hungary captain was, for all intents and purposes, the Henderson replacement many fans had long called out for; the 33-year-old a punchline as he looked to convince himself a move to the Saudi Pro League was not, in fact, motivated by money.

It may be early days for Szoboszlai, but he looks every bit the upgrade on Henderson as Liverpool’s new right-sided midfielder.

A stud in the No. 8 shirt, the Red Bull alumni is also swiftly erasing mixed memories of Naby Keita’s stint wearing the number made iconic by Steven Gerrard.

It has come, too, in perhaps a slightly different role than many expected upon his move from the Bundesliga, having scored 20 goals and laid on 22 assists in 91 games for Leipzig while primarily operating as one of two No. 10s or on the right wing.

The signings of Szoboszlai and Alexis Mac Allister suggested that Klopp could be planning to flood the final third with his new system incorporating a box midfield, but both have served as all-round midfielders instead.

Starting all four games for Liverpool so far this season, much of the 22-year-old’s best work has, in fact, come in ensuring structure as part of a new-look side still searching for it. For example, Andy Robertson, with 34, is the only player so far to record more ball recoveries than Szoboszlai, who is tied with Mac Allister on 26.

He was central to finding stability against both Bournemouth and Newcastle when, following red cards to Mac Allister and Virgil van Dijk respectively, Liverpool were forced to change shape and he was required to sit in as part of a two-man midfield.

“He was the only one who really felt like he had power for more, because he was part of the double six and running everywhere,” Klopp said of Szoboszlai following a relentless display in the 3-1 win over Bournemouth that saw Mac Allister wrongly dismissed.

“I had to hold him back a little bit!”

Only full-backs Robertson (349) and Trent Alexander-Arnold (286) have had more touches of the ball than his 268, which matches up when it comes to passes completed – Robertson’s tally is 256, Alexander-Arnold’s 189 and Szoboszlai’s 186.

Of players to clock at least 180 minutes on the pitch over those four fixtures, only centre-backs Van Dijk and Ibrahima Konate (both 89.7%) have a higher pass success rate than the Hungarian (86.1%).

That those players are primarily defensive and Szoboszlai’s remit is, fundamentally, to support the attack makes his output all the more impressive – particularly as he has also lent himself outstandingly to the attacking cause.

Alexander-Arnold, with nine, is the only Liverpool player to create more chances, as Szoboszlai matches Mohamed Salah with seven. Only Luis Díaz, with 2.1, averages more successful dribbles per 90 minutes than his 1.8. And though he is yet to register a definition assist, he is behind only Salah (0.6) when it comes to expected assists, of which he has 0.5.

Szoboszlai is also up there when it comes to shots on goal, with only Darwin Núñez (7.6), Salah (3.7), Diogo Jota (3.2) and Díaz (3.1) – all, it must be said, members of the forward line – looking to test the goalkeeper more times on average than the midfielder’s two per 90.

One of those led to a goal from Jota in the victory over Bournemouth, Szoboszlai’s drive palmed out into the path of his team-mate during a game in which he also won the opening penalty; another, three minutes into the visit of Aston Villa to Anfield, resulted in a sensational goal of his own.

The purity of his first-time strike, gliding in off his left foot through a throng of bodies following Alexander-Arnold’s corner, revealed the technique that has left Hungary manager Marco Rossi convinced he has only seen “five players in the last 50 years that have a shot like him.”

Watching Szoboszlai wheel away before pulling off a textbook knee slide, the No. 8 adorning his back, brought back vivid memories of a player who could very comfortably make that five-man list: Gerrard himself.

Only turning 23 in October, the Reds look to have acquired a gem in Szoboszlai, a 6’1”, all-action midfielder, composed on the ball, with an eye for goal and – to borrow the words of Dirk Kuyt when describing another former Liverpool midfielder, Gini Wijnaldum – the lungs of a horse.

That he is only four games into his career at Anfield and is already showing such promise is tantalising, with the glow-up from Henderson’s tired stasis to Szoboszlai’s boundless potential one Klopp’s midfield had been desperate for.

(Images from IMAGO)

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