Mohamed Salah is not Lionel Messi. He is not as good as Lionel Messi and probably won’t come close to achieving what Messi has achieved over the course of his career.
He is, however, similar in the way he runs, the close control he has when in tight situations and his ability to finish when some, usually including the opposition goalkeeper, may think the chance has gone.
The big question for Liverpool fans is; can your club keep hold of him?
With reports of interest from Real Madrid, to name but one, it isn’t money which will entice Salah away from Merseyside, it is ambition. Is Liverpool’s ambition in sync with the Egyptian’s?
He is certainly capable of playing for a club used to winning trophies, so can Liverpool be that club?
He is now up with some of the great players of Europe. Maybe not at the same top level as Messi and Ronaldo, to reach that plateau he still has an awfully long way to go, but he can still be mentioned in the same breath as Hazard, Kane, Sánchez and Pogba, for example.
There are reports that Liverpool will offer him a bumper new deal to stay at the club but that won’t be the deciding factor.
If money were a factor Salah could certainly make more elsewhere and would probably leave. The fact that he isn’t Latino or South American should make it easier to resist the Spanish clubs and he seems to be happy where he is. The question is how long will that happiness last?
Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi – Untouchable as the top two in world football!
If Liverpool were to be knocked out of the Champion’s League by Manchester City then that is their season over. They will finish in the top four meaning they can try again next year but with no trophies this time out will Salah want to “try again” when there will be offers of greater success on the table?
We hope he stays in England because the Premier League is the best in Europe. The problem is that, despite this fact, the most successful clubs in Europe are not English.
Over in Manchester…..
Paul Pogba was a marquee siging. He was the type of signing that Ed Woodward thinks is his raison d’être. Having virtually given him away to Juventus when his contract had expired at Old Trafford, it was then deemed by Woodward, (there is little evidence of anybody else having any input), that United needed him back and that the £89 million price tag was not going to stand in the way.
Woodward thinks that Gareth Bale would be a good addition to United despite the fact that David Moyes didn’t express much enthusiasm, nor did Louis van Gaal and now José Mourinho hardly seems to be turning cartwheels at the idea. In the past Bale has always distanced himself from a move to Old Trafford so he would hardly be welcomed by the fans at this stage of his career!
In other words, Woodward just likes spending lots of money, usually on one player, regardless if he is right for the club or not.
Ed Woodward – With a Glazer, a legend and too much control over someone else’s money!
This would now seem to have backfired in a spectacular way. There is a possibility that Pogba will be sold in the summer window to finance new arrivals. This, if true, is obviously a directive from the Glazers as Woodward is happy to spend, spend, spend without giving too much thought as to where the money is coming from.
Also, if true, it has to raise the question of what the future holds for Woodward. Under the last three managers he has overseen the biggest spending sprees of any time in United’s history and what does he have to show for it?
Out of the Champion’s League and second in the Premier League, this season could see them become the most expensive FA Cup winners ever!
United’s first team includes Romelu Lukaku and Nemanja Matić who can be considered the only regulars out of all of the recent signings. Even Alexis Sánchez has already been dropped!
If Pogba follows other signings such as Ibrahimović, Schweinsteiger, Di Maria, Depay, Schneiderlin and Valdés, out of the exit door he will be further proof that United’s transfer policy is seriously flawed.
That being the case there is only one man responsible and, despite the fact that he was beginning to win some of the shallower fans over with his willingness to spend, he should be asked to resign and head back to the marketing department from whence he came.
WHY SAY ANYTHING? 