‘I was told’: Liverpool were willing to sell £35m player last month, they won’t now – journalist

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Mohamed Salah to Saudi Arabia is the story of deadline day so far.

The Reds have knocked back a record £150m bid for the Egyptian from Al-Ittihad, and while there is talk about a potential second bid, the Reds’s stance is clear – they don’t want to sell.

However, according to Lewis Steele, that hasn’t always been the case.

Speaking on The Mail’s Transfer deadline livestream, Steele stated that he’s been told by a source that Liverpool would’ve been open to the idea of selling Salah if this bid from Al-Ittihad came in four weeks ago, but now, it’s too late in the day for this deal to go through.

Too late

Steele shared what he knows about the £35m man.

“What I was told by someone in the last 48 hours is that if that bid came in four weeks ago they would’ve been a lot more likely to play ball and a lot more likely to play ball at a lower cost. It’s too late now, and Al-Ittihad must be thinking why didn’t they go for him four weeks ago. I’m still leaning towards him staying. The word from Liverpool is that the £150m bid has gone in and the stance is the same as it has been all week, he’s not for sale in this window,” Steele said.

Why wait?

We really can’t get our heads around the Saudis strategy here.

Mo Salah isn’t a player they’ve only just learned about, and the Saudis haven’t only just started spending money.

This is a deal that genuinely probably could’ve been done a month ago, but, for some reason, the Saudis have waited right until the last minute to get this deal done and it looks like they’ve missed their chance.