Real Madrid reportedly want Mohamed Salah but any sale shouldn’t draw comparisons with that of Philippe Coutinho.
El Desmarque claim that Real consider Kylian Mbappe too expensive. As a result, they want Salah – and would happily pay £150m to get him.
Should any deal like that go through, it would naturally draw comparisons to two years ago. Liverpool sold Coutinho for a similar amount of money – £142m according to the BBC – back in 2018, a deal that looks incredible in hindsight.
Because the Reds took that money and used it spectacularly. It immediately eased any concerns over Virgil van Dijk’s club-record arrival. The money also helped fund Alisson Becker’s transfer, as well as Fabinho’s that same summer.
Those players improved Liverpool dramatically, giving the Reds three world-class options in problem positions. And all for a player who they didn’t really need, seeing as Coutinho was always an odd fit under Jurgen Klopp.
An incredibly talented player, sure, but his position was never clear. As a result, they didn’t need to replace him as he wasn’t really what Liverpool needed.
A different situation
But if Liverpool did get £150m for Salah, things would be completely different. For one thing, Salah is a perfect fit on the right flank and would need replacing immediately. That would cost an absolute fortune and Liverpool would simply go backwards if they didn’t get it right.
And there are no glaring issues with the squad, either. It’s not like Liverpool can dramatically improve in any position right now. So even if they had money left over after replacing Salah, what would they do with it?
It’s easy to create parallels between selling Salah and selling Coutinho. In truth, though, they’re very different situations. While selling Coutinho made an awful lot of sense, you can’t say the same about Salah.
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