Souness makes excellent point about Salah and his agent amid huge Saudi offers
Graeme Souness has insisted that Mohamed Salah is "flirting" with a move to the Saudi Pro League, despite Liverpool rejecting a £150million bid on deadline day.
Saudi champions Al-Ittihad have made the Reds star their top target in recent days and firmed up their interest to make a formal bid on Friday. Liverpool rejected that offer, though neither Salah nor his agent Ramy Abbas had publicly stated their desire for the future.
Now, with Ittihad preparing to return with a bumper £200m bid, Souness is concerned that Salah will leave. He highlighted the attacker's silence over recent weeks as hint that the attacker was considering joining the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo and Jordan Henderson.
"Make no mistake, Salah is flirting with the Saudis. Neither he nor one of his representatives has come out and categorically said, 'We do not want to go to Saudi Arabia at this time'. If he wanted to stay, someone could have issued a statement to that effect," he told the Daily Mail.
"He is toying with the idea, at the very least, and I think, deep down, he will feel he should go. The vast majority of Liverpool fans would be understandably aggrieved by that, though this is a sign of what lies ahead for the Premier League.
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"The Saudis have infiltrated every level of British society in the last 50 years, so why not football? They are the big guys in the Middle East who play second fiddle to no one. They want big players, such as Salah, who will make people take notice of them.
HAVE YOUR SAY! Should Liverpool accept an improved bid for Mohamed Salah? Comment below.
Mohamed Salah is the subject of interest from Saudi Arabia (Liverpool FC via Getty Images)"To them, the money is neither here nor there because they’ve got so much of it. If Saudi Arabia really wanted Salah, they could find a mechanism to buy Liverpool and transfer him the next day. Mark my words, this is a gravy train which has only just left the station and is a long way from its destination."
Abbas did move to deny any suggestions that his client will leave Anfield this summer earlier in August. At the time, he tweeted: "If we considered leaving LFC this year, we wouldn’t have renewed the contract last summer. Mohamed remains committed to LFC."
Salah and Abbas have remained conspicuous by their silence throughout deadline day. He did leave Liverpool's Friday training session full of smiles, as boss Jurgen Klopp insisted Salah would be staying.
"The position remains the same absolutely. That's how it is. Nothing else to say. No offer as far as I know," Klopp said on Friday morning when asked about the news that Ittihad had seen a bid rejected.
"I think the next two weeks will show how much of a challenge it is, because whatever happens there, obviously, nobody can react any more. That's something I think UEFA or whoever should have an eye on. Because we all have to protect the game, and we want [to].
"It's not illegal, it's the game, and obviously I love all my players who play now in Saudi Arabia. It's not like it distracts me now from my watching habits, but we have to make sure all these European leagues... stay as strong as they are."
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