Roma’s Director of Football Monchi has claimed this week that Liverpool’s first offer for Mohamed Salah was almost half what they eventually paid for the Egyptian star, according to the Daily Mirror.
Salah has announced himself as a world-class player during his first season at Anfield scoring 43 goals in all competitions, and picking up PFA Player of the Year award along the way.
The Liverpool winger’s two goals and two assists against former club Roma helped Jurgen Klopp’s team take a 5-2 lead into the second leg of the Champions League Semi’s on Tuesday night.
Monchi has been speaking to Spanish radio station Onda Cero about how they had to haggle with Reds owners for a higher price in the summer, leaving John W.Henry thinking he had overpaid.
Monchi said:
We had to take an offer before the end of the month. He wanted to leave, but we would have kept him if the regulations weren’t against us. When I arrived, the offer [from Liverpool] was £26m but we managed to get it up to almost £43m with bonuses. That is what we could do. The market then went crazy with Neymar, Coutinho and Dembele.
Either way, Liverpool will have bought record-breaking Salah for a bargain price if he can fire them to their first Champions League win for 13 years.
