Pedro Neto has admirers at Anfield – could he replace Mohamed Salah?
I’m not surprised to see Pedro Neto’s name being linked with top clubs, given the way he’s started the Premier League season. The Wolves man has always been a huge talent, one admired by just about every big side including Liverpool, but injuries have set him back significantly in recent years.
Now he’s back fit, we are seeing what he can do, and the pace and threat he brings, plus the room for development he has at 23, mark him out as someone who can definitely take the next step by moving to a Champions League club.
Whether that’s Liverpool – they still need to get back to the Champions League, by the way! – remains to be seen. I know that Neto has admirers at Anfield, and that his versatility and skillset would be well-suited to a Jurgen Klopp side. But then the same could be said, I believe, for a Mikel Arteta side or a Pep Guardiola side. I believe he is of that level, potentially.
The first aim for him, though, must be to stay fit and to turn this purple patch into something more sustainable. He still needs to improve his numbers, particularly in terms of goal-scoring, if he is to put himself in that top bracket of attackers. But he is making waves at Wolves right now, and if he continues to do so then we can expect him to move on to bigger and better things next season.
With reasons to think that the Mohamed Salah to Saudi Arabia stories might not be going away in 2024, Neto could definitely be one to watch.
Liverpool looked at Jadon Sancho when he was at Borussia Dortmund – here’s what Erik ten Hag has got wrong with the player
It is easy to look at Jadon Sancho and wonder what might have been, isn’t it? I know that Liverpool, for example, had a good long look at him when he was ripping it up at Borussia Dortmund, but opted to go down a different route when recalibrating their attack, choosing less heralded (and cheaper) players such as Diogo Jota and Luis Diaz, both of whom have turned out to be successes.
I, like many others I’m sure, expected Sancho to be a huge hit at Manchester United, and so it is a big surprise to see where he has ended up. It is hard to see a way back for him at Old Trafford, unless of course Erik ten Hag leaves.
I think the mistake Ten Hag has made, both in terms of his relationship with the player and from the club’s perspective, is in going public with his dissatisfaction. Once he did that, he a) risked what happened with Sancho responding to his criticism and making the story bigger and b) damaged United’s chances of selling the player. United are getting absolutely nothing out of Sancho at the moment, and given the money they invested in him and the talent he has, that is a serious problem, even before we think about the PR side of things. Were they to try and offload him in January, they’d be getting nowhere near the money they paid.
Ten Hag, of course, might argue that his public criticism was an attempt to get the player’s attention and focus, a last resort, if you like, but given Sancho’s reaction it feels like that was a misguided move. The player clearly doesn’t agree with his assessment, or his approach, and there are no winners emerging from this situation. Sancho is sidelined, Ten Hag is without a potentially key player and United are watching the value of an asset diminish with each passing week.
Ten Hag is not the only manager to fight such battles, of course. I think we were all surprised when Pep Guardiola took on Joao Cancelo last season, for example, while Mikel Arteta got rid of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang when he was Arsenal’s club captain and one of the figureheads of the side. Both of those decisions turned out to be justified from the manager’s point of view, you’d say!
In terms of Jurgen Klopp, there have not been too many examples of him laying down the law with players, or questioning their professionalism in public. The one example that stands out is Mamadou Sakho, whose Reds career was effectively ended after a series of disciplinary and behavioural breaches during Klopp’s first pre-season in 2016. That is the only time, to my mind, I can remember Klopp ever admonishing a first-team player publicly during his time at Anfield – and again, the manager turned out to be the winner in that battle!