Liverpool could have had Mohamed Salah much sooner if not for a spot-on assessment from Jose Mourinho and Chelsea.
As the curtain comes down on Salah’s legendary Liverpool career, more stories are emerging about his time at the club, as well as how he got there.
The Egyptian eventually moved to Anfield in 2017, but he had already been at the top of the transfer shortlist under Brendan Rodgers.
The only reason he did not come to Merseyside in 2014 was Chelsea hijacking the move, and the reason later given to a top Liverpool executive makes for interesting reading.
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Jose Mourinho wanted Mohamed Salah at Chelsea because of Liverpool concern
Former Liverpool CEO Ian Ayre was leading the charge to bring Salah to Anfield when he was still at Basel.
The Reds believed they were in pole position. Then Chelsea arrived, Basel accepted an £11m bid, and that was that.
Ayre recalled the moment in an interview with The Telegraph.
He said: “I’ll never forget this, I was in my room getting ready to go back to the stadium, brushing my teeth, when Dave rang me. ‘They have sold him to Chelsea, it’s in the news.’ I was gobsmacked.
“We called repeatedly, but [the Basel president] wouldn’t reply. We went back home, absolutely furious.
“They eventually got back to us and told us Chelsea had made an offer that they couldn’t refuse, but we weren’t even given a chance to negotiate. I can’t tell you how angry and devastated everyone was.”
Chelsea have developed a habit of getting in Liverpool’s way in the transfer market. Romeo Lavia and Moises Caicedo are recent examples of that, but the Salah case is different.
This was not just Chelsea beating Liverpool to a player. According to Ayre, there was another motivation behind the move.
He added: “It was later said to me the main reason Chelsea had taken him was so we couldn’t sign him.
“I was told José Mourinho was right behind the idea as he didn’t want Liverpool to have him. It all felt very weird because, honestly, there was never an indication, at any stage, that he was going to anyone else.”
That might help explain why Salah never truly found his rhythm at Stamford Bridge. He was a brilliant young talent, but perhaps not a player Chelsea had a plan for.
In the end, Mourinho’s concern was justified. Salah eventually made it to Anfield and came back to haunt his old club, becoming one of the greatest players in Liverpool history.
It’s crazy to think Liverpool could have had another three years of Salah magic. At the same time, nobody would want to change how it all unfolded.
His tenure on Merseyside may have started later than it should have, but what followed was worth every second of the wait.
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