Liverpool shouldn’t be looking to sell star forward Mohamed Salah this summer, despite a below-par season.
That’s the view of former England midfielder Paul Merson. Writing his Premier League predictions for Sportskeeda, Merson touched on the future of Salah, as Liverpool prepare to face Manchester United.
“Salah hasn’t been good this season after signing a new contract. Both the Golden Boot winners from last season have been poor this term. Teams are always looking to silence Salah and that puts him at a disadvantage,” said Merson.
“Having said that, I wouldn’t sell him at the end of the season though because unless Liverpool are sure they can get an upgrade, there is no point to it. But I do believe that there are plenty of players in Liverpool’s midfield who need to go.
“All their Premier League rivals will strengthen in the summer and Liverpool will need to keep up. They’ll need to rejig their setup because the current one is not working like it used to.”
Salah still scoring for Liverpool
To say that Salah ‘hasn’t been good’ this season is, on balance, probably fair. The Egyptian hasn’t sparkled as brightly as usual and has been downright anonymous in far too many games.
But it’s also true that his goal against Wolves on Wednesday was his 20th of the season. In a campaign where he and his team have struggled to get going, that’s really impressive.
Even more impressive is that only two of those 20 have been from the penalty spot. In fact, it’s been almost a year since Liverpool were given a spot-kick in the Premier League. So, Mo is still finding the net with a decent amount of regularity from open play.
As a result, there’s simply no chance of Liverpool looking to sell him anytime soon. Quite where Merson has plucked the suggestion from that they would like to is anyone’s guess.
There have recently been some reports that Salah himself may look to leave Anfield if the Reds don’t qualify for the Champions League this season. But these have since been rubbished by both Mo’s agent and journalist Fabrizio Romano.
If Liverpool were to sell Salah, they’d be set to make a huge profit on the £35m they spent on him in 2017. But the Egyptian King is now part of the furniture at Anfield. The 30-year-old has written himself into club folklore with his exploits on the pitch and will continue to do so. He’s not going anywhere. Long live the King.