Barcelona knows who they want to sign if they fail in their pursuit to land Borussia Dortmund’s Erling Haaland, and according to recent reports, could turn their attention to the Premier League.
The Catalan giants, managed by former midfielder Xavi, are hell-bent on bringing Haaland to the Nou Camp but know that the Norweigan forward is also wanted by the likes of Real Madrid and Manchester City – both of whom are frontrunners.
In an effort to plan for failure when it comes to Haaland, Xavi has reportedly told the club’s hierarchy his preferred alternative is Liverpool’s Mo Salah.
That’s according to a recent report from Spanish outlet AS, who claims the Egypt international is not opposed to leaving Liverpool.
MORE: Premier League team of the week: Cristiano Ronaldo joined by Arsenal, Liverpool and Chelsea stars
Salah, 30, will be out of contract at Anfield at the end of next season and despite playing a hugely important role under manager Jurgen Klopp, there have not yet been any signs of renewal.
Discussing the 30-year-old’s contract, Klopp, who spoke to reporters last week, as quoted by ESPN, said: “Mo expects this club to be ambitious,” Klopp told a news conference on Friday. “We cannot do much more. It is Mo’s decision.
“It is all fine from my point of view. Nothing happened further, no signing or rejection. We just have to wait, there’s no rush.”
This could see him leave the club for free in the summer of 2023 and that is a scenario that the Reds will not even want to be considering – no way can one of the world’s best players walk away for nothing.
Barcelona knows this and could therefore put in an offer of between £50m – £60m this summer, as well as agree to pay the world-class forward as much as £85m over the next four seasons.
Since joining Liverpool from Roma back in 2017, Salah has gone on to feature in 238 games, in all competitions, directly contributing to a stunning 207 goals along the way.
Anybody relying on AS or any Spanish sports paper is clutching at straws. They have to make up sensational stories to compete with each other. Equivalent of “2nd World War bomber found on Moon” stuff.
Barca is not going to deal with Liverpool seeing they need to up their offer by at least 3 fold. Not to mention they still owed about half of the 142m for Coutinho. 60m will go towards repaying their debt to Liverpool, not even close to even getting Mo’s signature.