31 Mar 2014

Transfer Truth: 'Surprised' £11m star reveals the real reason LFC deal collapsed

There are several conflicting accounts of how Liverpool lost out on the chance to sign Egyptian star Mohamed Salah during the disastrous January transfer window. Ian Ayre claims that Salah 'didn't want to come to LFC', and his Agent insists that the Reds dragged their feet for 2.5 months, which ultimately sabotaged the deal. Which is correct? In a new interview today, Salah himself has given his side of the story.

Here are various accounts of what happened:

Ian Ayre

“We won’t overpay for players, but when the right player is available for the right deal and wants to come here, they will come here. When it comes to transfers, you win some and you lose some, but it won’t be for a lack of ambition on our part.”

Sacha Empacher (Salah's Agent)

“It was a long and fair negotiation with Liverpool, but it lasted two-and-a-half months - too long. Both clubs [LFC and Basel] could not agree on terms. When Chelsea contacted Basel, he was happy and took his chance.”

Brendan Rodgers

"It's the construction of the whole deal, not only with the player and the agent but also Basel. It was deemed in this case that we couldn't do a deal. If we can the club will do everything possible to match the value of the player. If they end up going to another club that is difficult to take"

In an interview with BeIN Sports last night, Salah explained what happened with the Liverpool deal (the video is in Arabic):



Sports site 'Here is the City' has shamelessly misrepresented Salah's comments, claiming that he stated the following:

"I cannot declare how much they offered in October, perhaps the Basel management can provide such information, but they laughed when they received that offer"

This is totally inaccurate. As I always do when I come across a hitherto untranslated interview, I paid a professional to translate Salah's comments, and this is what he actually said:

"There was talk about moving to Liverpool, and I knew that I would receive good offers from many clubs. Frankly, I was surprised when the offer came from Chelsea because there was no contact between me and them. The offer came to the club [Basel] directly, and administration informed me that Chelsea wanted to sign me"

Quite how 'Here is the City' came up with their version is anyone's guess, and given the translation, I just don't see how the claim that Basel 'laughed' at LFC's offer can be construed as anything other than a blatant fabrication.

Made up quotes aside, for me, the key question remains: If LFC were unwilling to pay the required fee - which, according to the BBC, The Independent, and the Guardian, is an eminently affordable £11m - why waste two-and-a-half months 'negotiating'? Why not just switch to a different transfer target?

When all is said and done, though, Liverpool's season has not suffered as a result of failing to sign Salah, but he is clearly a good player, and once he's adapted to the Premier League, his £11m transfer fee may prove to be a major bargain.

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25 comments:

  1. What's really revealing about this is that Chelsea were doing what we have always suspected and simply stockpiling players. Clearly they had no real interest in the player, they simply wanted to prevent a rival from strengthening.

    Sad but clearly true as the player confirmed the club had really not had any contact with him.

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  2. He will rot on the bench and will want a move in January. We could go in for a cut price then.

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  3. I take your point Jamie, but I can also look at it from the club's point of view. As a fan it is easy to to think 'what's a million here or there, why didn't we just cough up a bit extra and get him?', but clearly the club is working to fairly sensible financial strategy now. They decided the player was worth X and felt they had a reasonable chance of signing the player for that figure, if they were quite robust in their negations.
    In this case another club then comes in and offers more, that is the chance you take. It is prudent to have an upper limit and stick to it. If someone else pays more then you believe the player is worth then by definition they have overpaid. We are not in a position to overpay, so we move on to the next target.
    As a fan, although it is frustrating to miss out on a target (he looks like a promising player from the few appearances he's had for Chelsea), I respect the owners/ deal makers for sticking to their guns.

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  4. You mean what we did in the 70s and 80s during our successful period? What Chelsea have done is no different to what any other successful team would do.

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  5. Exactly, you (not specifically you, but generally speaking) can't say that we couldn't afford 11 million pounds when we then went for Konoplyanko (or however his name is spelt) for 17 million pounds.

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  6. They cant buy all the top players and have them sit on the bench or play in reserves. Eventually that destabilizes the squad harmony with too many players wanting regular first team football. Hence the Mata deal took place to Manure, not only because Chelski did not see them a short term threat but because he was not getting game time and evidently wanted to be on the pitch.


    Some of the players we have missed out on, in hindsight was a blessing, imagine if we had Gylfie Sig' and Dempsey in place of Sturidge and Coutinho. Albeit would have loved to see Henirk Mkhitryan and Yevgen Konoplyanka. Every club will make mistake in the transfer market, its just that because we have no blank cheque book our mistakes will hurt more; hence we have to have sense of perspective on these things.

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  7. Really go ahead and name the players we stockpiled in the 70's and 80's

    Truth is we actually released players so they could have careers elsewhere often to our own detriment, players like Kevin Sheedy, Ogrizovic, Dave Watson, all came through our system they were not players we got by gazumping.

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  8. Er...no thanks, he's made his bed...

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  9. Not unless you loan them out so they are not at your club. Look at Courtois, Lukaku, etc.

    Sturridge escaped, but had Maureen been in charge he would still be on the fringes at Chelsea, sad to see careers go down the pan like that. Sturridge could have been doing this for the last three years.

    But as a fan, if a player in principally interested in financial gain over playing time and career prospects, I'm really happy to see them go eslewhere

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  10. For half the price and Rodgers coaching he could be another Sturridge example.

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  11. What we did in the 70s and 80s, wake up lad. All teams back then had small squads and your first 11 played every week if fit. Salah didn want to join us end of, he'll be warming chelsea's bench next season to or sent out on loan. Up the mighty reds top of the league.

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  12. This transfer was a case of the Salah telling Basel and his agent to bring him the best deal which they got from none other than Chelsea.


    Chelsea can afford to let him sit on the bench and pay his wages which are probably double that of Sterling's.


    Money talks, BS walks.

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  13. Sitting top of the league with 6 games to go seems to make the phrase "disastrous January transfer window" seem redundant now.

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  14. Why not negotiate? Liverpool tried and failed, but that's just part of the business. They wanted to get a young player at the price they thought was right but it never happened. Fine, that's not ideal, but I don't understand the suggestion we shouldn't try in the first place.

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  15. Salah probably wanted unrealistic wages or something not on par with the current squad - could be unsettling. Didn't he say he wanted to play for Real or Barco or something. Maybe a little too egocentric, and not needed.
    No Transfers, no problem. Time to Galvanize.
    The Chemical Brother's tune should be an anthem (Unless of course they are diehard United fans or something)
    I'd say it's appropriate:
    Don't hold back...

    Cause you woke up in the mornin, with initiative to move, so why make it harder...

    Don't hold back...

    If you think about it, so many people do, be cool man, look smarter....

    Don't hold back...

    And you shouldnt even care, bout those losers in the air, and their crooked stares...

    Don't hold back...

    Cause there's a party over here, so you might as well be here, where the people care...

    Don't hold back...

    --

    The world, is holdin back...

    The time has come to...

    The world, is holdin back...

    The time has come to...

    The world, is holdin back...

    The time has come to...

    Galvanize!

    C'mon, c'mon c'mon....

    --

    Dont hold back...

    If you think about it too much, you may stumble, trip up, fall on your face...

    Don't hold back...

    You think its time you get up, crunch time, like a sit up, come on keep pace...

    Don't hold back...

    Put apprehension on the back burner, let it sit, dont even get it lit...

    Don't hold back...

    Get involved with the jam, don't be a prick, hot chick, be a dick....

    Don't hold back...

    --

    The world, is holdin back...

    The time has come to...

    The world, is holdin back...

    The time has come to...

    The world, is holdin back...

    The time has come to...

    Galvanize!

    C'mon, c'mon c'mon....

    --

    World, the time has come to...

    Push the button...

    World, the time has come to...

    Push the button...

    World, the time has come to...

    Push the button...

    World, my finger, is on the button...

    My finger, is on the button...

    My finger, is on the button...

    Push the button...

    The time has come to...

    Galvanize!

    The time has come to...

    Galvanize!

    Galvanize!

    Galvanize!

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  16. More than likely, I see a loan move to Vitesse in Salah's future.

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  17. With hindsight I'm glad we didn't get him as it would have upset the balance of the starting 11.
    He not exactly pulling up trees and the team he chose is behind us in the league.
    Who would you have dropped to accommodate him ?

    Next season when we are in the Champions League we will need more depth and quality in ALL positions.
    Including Suarez, Sturridge,Sterling and Coutinho, outside of that there isn't enough attacking threat.



    For me the players we need to get rid of are Kelly,Aspas,Yesil,Coates Borini Toure.

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  18. Some great stats after the Spurs game


    The Reds became the first team in Premier League history to score four-or-more goals eleven times in one season. Prior to Brendan Rodgers taking charge, Liverpool scored four-or-more every 11.7 Premier League games on average; Rodgers’ Reds have done this every 4.
    Liverpool have scored exactly one hundred goals in their last thirty-eight league games, which is a new club record for such a period in the top flight.

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  19. The jury is still out on that point. Late in the season, when players get tired and injuries start to take their toll I hope we don't regret that we didn't get some quality in January. When the tank is dry...it's dry and there's no refueling till after the season is over. We don't have a deep bench and we have unrecallable players on loan that would be able to help. I don't want to jinx this superb season, but an injury or two to a couple of key players could do some serious harm to our new hopes. I just keep focusing on the real goal for the year which was to finish as a CL qualifier.

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  20. Chesea they are not fare, I totally know this! They didn't want the player but just to stop Liverpool from strengthening their team; and now Sarah is sitting on the bench and spoiling his talent. FA has to think on this kind of club. This proves that Morihno is not the best manager but using the money of the club owner unnecessarily.

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  21. Kudos JK, for paying for your own translation of this interview.

    A quality move on your part. Excellent journalism.

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  22. Really? Have you seen how many players they have out on loan?

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  23. Is this particular sports site called kingfut.com ?

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  24. Thanks for the kind words. Much appreciated.

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