Liverpool ‘amazed’ Arsenal rejected ‘wasteful’ Salah

Matt Stead

Liverpool were ‘amazed’ when Arsenal rejected the chance to sign Mohamed Salah because he was ‘wasteful’.

Salah joined Liverpool from Roma in summer 2017 for around £34million, and the Egyptian enjoyed a phenomenal debut season at Anfield.

He scored 44 goals in all competitions, won the PFA Players’ Player of the Year, FWA Footballer of the Year and Premier League Player of the Season awards, as well as the Golden Boot, and led Liverpool to the Champions League final.

But Arsenal also had the chance to bring Salah in from Roma, rejecting the opportunity due to some underwhelming reports from their Italian scout.

In an in-depth look into Jurgen Klopp’s first three years in charge on Merseyside, The Times shed a light into surely his most impactful signing. Jonathan Northcroft writes:

‘The key signings of the Klopp era have been made via meticulous research, combining [Ian] Graham’s [head of research] data with the scouting reports. Edwards [Michael, laptop guru] challenges the orthodoxy of clubs watching a player once, then sending a scout back a few weeks later to see them again. Liverpool watch in blocks of 15-20 games to get a true picture of consistency and performance. There is emphasis on how players train, and every January scouts go around the world to watch European clubs at their winter break camps. Edwards himself stood by the side of a pitch in Marbella watching Salah practise with Basel.

‘When Chelsea gazumped Liverpool for Salah in January 2014 there was desolation, but when Salah re-emerged, at Fiorentina then Roma, Liverpool could marry that evidence with all their glowing research on him as a youngster. They knew Chelsea would not want him, Spurs could not afford him and that he was not one for the Manchester clubs. They saw him as a natural Arsenal signing and were amazed that Arsenal’s Italian scout had thought Salah “wasteful”.

‘They expected the Egyptian to score 18-20 goals per season, world-class for a wide attacker, and were happy to be proved wrong in 2017-18 when he scored more than 40.’