Mohamed Salah
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FC Basel and Egypt star Mohamed Salah is expected to join Liverpool in January, says former teammate and close friend Mohamed Zika.
In an interview on Egyptian TV programme ‘Kora Kol Yoam’ hosted by Karim Shehata, Mohamed Salah’s former Arab Contractors teammate Mohamed Zika reveals the Basel star is likely to join Brendan Rodgers’ side in January.
Karim Shehata explained that Mohamed Salah called Zika a few days ago to invite him to his wedding – which was yesterday – and he later told the Ismaily midfielder that he’s ’99%’ certain to join Liverpool this January.
Host Shehata added that Salah was hoping Basel would progress in the Champions League before deciding on his future, but after they were eliminated following a 2-0 loss to Schalke, the Egyptian is anxious for a move in January.
When Zika was asked to confirm this dialogue with the 21-year-old Basel star, he said: “Basically, yes. Inshallah (if God wills).”
“He makes us and all of Egypt proud. Everyone talks about Mohamed Salah now. And aside from that he’s my friend, so I’m even happier for him,” he added.
This comes after Salah’s recent eye catching performances in Europe as he just narrowly missed out on reaching the Champions League knockout stages with Basel.
According to the Daily Mail, Liverpool coach Brendan Rodgers flew to Germany last Wednesday to watch Salah in action against Schalke in the Champions League, and are now prepared to make a £12 million offer for the Egyptian winger.
Salah, who already has 17 international goals to his name, has scored 10 goals so far this season - including two Champions League strikes against Mourinho’s Chelsea.
The Egyptian winger, who recently said he isfocused with Basel and not on the bids being reported by the press, named Real Madrid, Manchester United and Chelsea among his favorite clubs
In an interview on Egyptian TV programme ‘Kora Kol Yoam’ hosted by Karim Shehata, Mohamed Salah’s former Arab Contractors teammate Mohamed Zika reveals the Basel star is likely to join Brendan Rodgers’ side in January.
Karim Shehata explained that Mohamed Salah called Zika a few days ago to invite him to his wedding – which was yesterday – and he later told the Ismaily midfielder that he’s ’99%’ certain to join Liverpool this January.
Host Shehata added that Salah was hoping Basel would progress in the Champions League before deciding on his future, but after they were eliminated following a 2-0 loss to Schalke, the Egyptian is anxious for a move in January.
When Zika was asked to confirm this dialogue with the 21-year-old Basel star, he said: “Basically, yes. Inshallah (if God wills).”
“He makes us and all of Egypt proud. Everyone talks about Mohamed Salah now. And aside from that he’s my friend, so I’m even happier for him,” he added.
This comes after Salah’s recent eye catching performances in Europe as he just narrowly missed out on reaching the Champions League knockout stages with Basel.
According to the Daily Mail, Liverpool coach Brendan Rodgers flew to Germany last Wednesday to watch Salah in action against Schalke in the Champions League, and are now prepared to make a £12 million offer for the Egyptian winger.
Salah, who already has 17 international goals to his name, has scored 10 goals so far this season - including two Champions League strikes against Mourinho’s Chelsea.
The Egyptian winger, who recently said he isfocused with Basel and not on the bids being reported by the press, named Real Madrid, Manchester United and Chelsea among his favorite clubs
12 million!?!?
Why so surprised, Borini cost us £10 million, Allen £15 million.
One of the lads in work was shocked when I told him yesterday how much we paid for Borini, he thought he cost about £6m. While later on I picked up a paper banging on about how well Rodgers now rates £20m Jordan Henderson. I mean, fees get inflated, deflated depending on how people's opinions fair on certain players. I've heard the Henderson fee range from £13m - £20M now. Just goes to show, especially when you consider what Spurs spent in the Summer, how difficult it is to scope the value of a player, and how easy it is for many teams to stupidly overpay based on their own status and the profile of the player, often overlooking actual ability/suitability.
Oh my bad. Let's give them 18 mill while we're at it? Tripling the fee shows proper procedure.
Coutinho cost 8m and sturridge 12m. Salah isnt worth 12m.
He's young highly rated and a big club is chasing him. Should we walk away? Yes if it's higher than that.
They did, and none of them were wanted by their clubs.
I hate when people use the price tag to judge the value of the player. "I don't want to buy a £10M winger, let's save our money and buy a £25M winger next year." You're not buying bricks of gold, people. The football market is far from rational and valuations have very little to do with the actual level of a player's talent. You can buy Lamela for £30M and feel great about it for about 3 seconds – until you see him on the pitch. Or you can buy some unknown Polish dude from Lech Poznan called Lewandowski for €4.5M and the rest in history. I remember seeing Yaya Toure play for one of the worst teams in Ukrainian league and move to Olympiakos for €2M – and he is and has always been one of the biggest CM talents of his generation. Again, the market valuation has almost nothing to do with talent. Forget about numbers. Look at the player and judge for yourself.
To me, there is every indication that Salah is a major talent. Most promising African player of 2012 and best Swiss league player of 2013. I don't see any major weakness in his play. There are many players who are fast and technically excellent – but what impresses me about Salah in particular are three things:
1. He makes good decisions with the ball most of the time, despite his young age – in other words, he has good football instincts
2. He is very aware of teammates and opponents.
3. He is a high-energy player who doesn't stop running. He has "fire in his belly," so to speak (this is what I never saw in Lamela, for example).
Those 3 observations tell me that this is a player who can adapt to English football and in particular the brand of football we are playing in Liverpool. There is no reason to compare him to Pennant, Assaidi, Ryan Babel or anybody else, because those players lacked one or more of the 3 essential skills outlined above.
To me, there is every indication that Salah is a major talent. Most promising African player of 2012 and best Swiss league player of 2013. I don't see any major weakness in his play. There are many players who are fast and technically excellent – but what impresses me about Salah in particular are three things:
1. He makes good decisions with the ball most of the time, despite his young age – in other words, he has good football instincts
2. He is very aware of teammates and opponents.
3. He is a high-energy player who doesn't stop running. He has "fire in his belly," so to speak (this is what I never saw in Lamela, for example).
Those 3 observations tell me that this is a player who can adapt to English football and in particular the brand of football we are playing in Liverpool. There is no reason to compare him to Pennant, Assaidi, Ryan Babel or anybody else, because those players lacked one or more of the 3 essential skills outlined above.
and who's showing any interest salah apart from us? He doesn't seem so highly rated and looks quite average in ability.
Coutinho?
Does @keniget really have to paste the picture of El Hadji Diouf again? He was amongst the best players in the World Cup too ...
12 million is a big risk. You can lube it up any way you want, and I get it - but this kid has been doing pretty well in the biggest tourney in Europe and we're the only ones after him? Doesn't seem right ... It's not like people haven't heard about him (i.e. Coutinho, and @Modo - people were shitting themselves over getting this player long before he laced his boots for us). 12 million is a risk, and I'm not that comfortable with it considering how absolutely critical this transfer window and season is for our short term (& potentially long term) future.
I understand that you're worried, like I mentioned before I'd rather have Yarmolenko but I guess I have to trust Rodgers on this.
My judgement on Salah is based on one game and several compilations, the Ghana - Egypt games as well, so of course I'm not 100% sure.
We've probably looked at other options and realised that he's the best fit.
He is the spit of him
If it makes you feel better, Spurs also have been scouting Salah – but they are unlikely to bid because wingers and AMs are not their priority now. I'm sure there is a lot of interest after his performances in CL and Europa League. Why are more clubs not ready to enter the bidding war? Because only 3 or 4 other clubs can realistically compete with us in this segment of the market – a potentially major talent who commands a relatively high fee (ruling out most of the Bundesliga (except Dortmund), French, Spanish and Italian League), is too ambitious to go to Russia or Turkey and doesn't have enough reputation to interest the "big boys." Those are the most potentially profitable gambles to make, but only a few clubs are in a position to make them.
Diouf? This is a ridiculous comparison on many levels.
The only problematic thing I see with Salah is the potential anti-semitic stuff. With our luck, I just feel we are going to find ourselves embroiled in another controversy sooner or later. Let's hope football can be used to bring people together rather then divide them.
Maybe the youtube isn't doing him justice, but after watching him vs chelsea and him vs spurs he really did just come across as very average. Very reliant on his pace and his shooting against spurs was poor for the most part. He'll be good for the counter attack but i'd rather have sterling based on those youtube videos that's for sure.
@rurikbird, what other players have you backed in the past?
There have been a couple like Mkhitaryan and Konoplyanka (or was it Yarmolenko, or both?) that I think you've argued in favour for but you seem the most committed I can remember in this case.
Would you be willing to stake your reputation (not that a reputation on an online forum counts for all that much, but you know what I mean) on Salah coming good?
There have been a couple like Mkhitaryan and Konoplyanka (or was it Yarmolenko, or both?) that I think you've argued in favour for but you seem the most committed I can remember in this case.
Would you be willing to stake your reputation (not that a reputation on an online forum counts for all that much, but you know what I mean) on Salah coming good?
Oh yeah, now that you mention I remember a lot of comparisons to Robben.
I haven't seen Willian play at all for Chelsea this season so can't really comment on that one! Has he been good / shit / not given enough a go?
So when a player has a clear pace advantage he should NOT be using it and instead do rabonas and step-overs, slowing the game down like the useless fucker Quaresma used to do, for some fans to deem him not "average"? He was the thorn in their side all game, scored against Chelsea both home and away, scored against Spurs at home and was absolutely tearing apart Assou-Ekotto on the Spurs left flank in the away game. What more can you possibly do? A hat-trick in every game? He is playing the game at a very high speed and energy level without making almost any technical errors – that's a sign of a good technique. Not step-overs (which he can also do, naturally – search for some "skills" highlights).
What I also like in these videos is how he pressures defenders and fights even for hopeless balls, causing errors and chaos, runs back to help out the fullback and then full steam ahead waiting for the diagonal pass into space. You can see how Yakin very smartly built his team's game around those qualities and it works particularly well against teams with a high defensive line, such as AVB's Spurs or Mourinho's Chelsea.
Who compared him to Robben? He's nothing like robben at all. He hasn't been great, but not totally shit either. At the moment he doesn't look worth anywhere near the price tag, but he could just need time to settle in.
I did not compare Willian to Robben, as far I recall. I compared Yarmolenko to Robben, in terms of being a polarizing player who lives and dies by the cut-onto-the-left-and-shoot maneuver.
As for Willian, I am sure we would have been better off with him in the team rather than Moses and I'm sure Spurs are regretting getting stuck with Lamela after Chelsea robbed them of Willian. He looked a bit overwhelmed by the intensity of the PL in his first few games, now he seems to be adjusting gradually. Mourinho seems to trust him and I think his talent is quite clear. He is a bit lacking in the "fire in the belly" department though. I like him, but it's even better to have players who are more direct, like Coutinho. I see this directness in Salah.
I don't think a poster on a football forum should worry about maintaining any kind of "reputation" – I am not a scout, and like all of us I make judgements based on insufficient information. But yes, I am quite willing to say that Salah is much better than most of you think. For me he ticks all the boxes. That's not a guarantee of success, but I don't see this potential deal as "another Pennant" (in other words, investing in a player that everybody knows is limited and is in "you get what you pay for" category). I think for Salah sky is the limit; whether he can realize that potential is another matter.
As for Willian, I am sure we would have been better off with him in the team rather than Moses and I'm sure Spurs are regretting getting stuck with Lamela after Chelsea robbed them of Willian. He looked a bit overwhelmed by the intensity of the PL in his first few games, now he seems to be adjusting gradually. Mourinho seems to trust him and I think his talent is quite clear. He is a bit lacking in the "fire in the belly" department though. I like him, but it's even better to have players who are more direct, like Coutinho. I see this directness in Salah.
I don't think a poster on a football forum should worry about maintaining any kind of "reputation" – I am not a scout, and like all of us I make judgements based on insufficient information. But yes, I am quite willing to say that Salah is much better than most of you think. For me he ticks all the boxes. That's not a guarantee of success, but I don't see this potential deal as "another Pennant" (in other words, investing in a player that everybody knows is limited and is in "you get what you pay for" category). I think for Salah sky is the limit; whether he can realize that potential is another matter.
Probably my biggest mistake… I still don't like him, but he keeps proving me wrong, the bastard 🙂
R
RedZeppelin III
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is this lad best out wide ? if so why are we in for him considering we don't play with wingers ?
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