There’ll likely be quite a lot of Al-Ittihad supporters shocked to search out that the Saudi Professional League window will shut with out Mohamed Salah signing for the membership.
Of their defence, anybody who has learn the frantic reporting from that a part of the world over the course of the previous couple of weeks couldn’t fail to be completely satisfied that the Egyptian’s arrival from Liverpool this summer time was an inevitability.
And but the chance to land Salah has now handed with out him making his manner over to Jeddah for one in every of many ‘scheduled medicals’.
For these reporting on the matter from Merseyside, the path to this completely unsurprising end result has been a reasonably easy one.
Put merely, Liverpool have by no means as soon as wavered on their stance that their No. 11 was not on the market this summer time.
Admittedly, it is a place that has been taken up by numerous golf equipment within the build-up to the cash changing into ‘too good to show down’ and their star man departing.
However the Reds by no means gave off the sense that this was all about posturing, and it’s pretty simple to grasp why.
For starters, Salah stays one of the vital productive forwards in world soccer with two years remaining on the profitable deal he signed solely final summer time.
In the meantime, Champions League qualification might be price over £100 million to a membership with a penchant for going as deep within the competitors as Liverpool are inclined to, and so dropping your greatest participant at this level places that cash in danger.
What’s extra, if a striker with simply 9 objectives in a top-five European league to his title is valued at £72 million this summer time, then how a lot may a participant worthy of filling Salah’s sneakers go for in January?
Within the context of this loopy market and with no enterprise doable till the winter, even a £200 million charge doesn’t look significantly engaging.
After all, taking this line has been made far simpler for Liverpool by the participant’s reluctance to burn any bridges in pushing for a departure.
It’s clear that Salah’s openness to a transfer has shifted since his agent, Ramy Abbas Issa, took to social media to dismiss hyperlinks to Al-Ittihad a month in the past.
The Saudis have tended to reply to such setbacks this summer time by including zeros to their provide, and it feels telling that there have been no agency declarations of loyalty as hypothesis has ramped up of late.
However, whereas his head might have been turned by the persistence of his suitors, Salah has continued to chop a relaxed determine in current weeks.
As a lot may very well be seen within the grin that served as his response to reporters’ questions over his future as he departed Anfield following Sunday’s win over Aston Villa.
Very like Liverpool, it appears that evidently Salah can see that there can be loads of worth in merely revisiting this case in a yr’s time.
At that time, the Reds will hope to be again within the Champions League, and have extra silverware to have fun beneath Jurgen Klopp.
Salah, in the meantime, can be closing on fourth spot of the membership’s all-time high scorers listing, and have the chance to depart in an amicable vogue after having fun with one other 12 months enjoying on the highest degree.
Maybe then the noise in regards to the Saudi Professional League securing their most coveted star will lastly show to have some fact to it.
