Al-Ittihad fear it is now too late to sign Mo Salah – but they’ll be back for the Liverpool star. Meanwhile, Darwin Nunez was apparently offered as a makeweight this summer…
SAUDIS TO WAIT FOR SALAH
It’s deadline day again, this time with a Saudi flavour. Which, if there’s any substance to everything we’ve heard over the last week about Mo Salah and Al-Ittihad, means Liverpool can expect to receive a huge offer, if they haven’t already.
The Saudis left it weirdly late last week before submitting a £150million bid for Salah, leaving Liverpool no time to source a replacement, even if they were tempted to sell at that price. Apparently they were not, but the expectation has been that a more appealing proposal would land at Anfield, one that might make Salah the most expensive player in the world.
Indeed, Saudi officials were said to have set up base in Cannes – why not? – last week before moving to London at the weekend to get the deal done. But here we are, on the Pro League deadline day, and they don’t seem much closer to their objective.
Indeed, for all the big talk, it seems the Saudis might have accepted defeat – for now. The Telegraph says ‘sources close to Al-Ittihad believe it is too late to get a deal done by the 10pm deadline’. Which makes you wonder why they haven’t shown a little more haste, unless they were only ever content to just create a noise.
In which case, prepare to hear it all again in January. The Saudis’ interest in Salah is ‘expected to be revisited in future windows’.
REDS PROPOSED NUNEZ SWAP
One player discussed briefly as a possible replacement for Salah was Joao Felix. But one report from Spain suggests Liverpool wanted the Portugal star to take the place of another of their forwards…
Mundo Deportivo, in a piece claiming that the Reds, Manchester United and Aston Villa all sought to sign Felix this summer, says that Liverpool offered Darwin Nunez in exchange for the ex-Chelsea loanee.
But Felix only had eyes for Barcelona, where he will play this season after the Catalans swooped to land the 23-year-old on loan with no obligation or option to buy.
TERRY TO BOSS IN SAUDI
Back to Saudi, where John Terry could soon be pitching up to kick off his managerial career.
The Sun says a deal has already been verbally agreed for the former Chelsea captain to take over at Al-Shabab.
Apparently, Terry was approached a month ago while working on a consultancy basis with Chelsea’s academy. Al-Shabab reckon the 42-year-old has the ‘coaching credentials and reputation to attract more star names’ to the club to help them compete with the Pro League big-hitters.
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