In the last few days, Leroy Sane’s name has been mentioned quite a lot as Liverpool’s number one transfer target, as an ideal replacement for Mohamed Salah. As is known, Salah is currently the main transfer target for the giant Saudi Arabian club, Al Ittihad, and was offered a transfer price of 215 million pounds. A figure that could become the world’s most expensive transfer record.
This year, the Anfield camp can indeed resist, because the bombastic offer came at the end of the 2023 summer transfer market. However, the situation will be different next year, especially if there is a big enough offer at the start of the transfer market. Incidentally, the King of Egypt’s contract will expire in 2025, and Liverpool itself is a typical team that uses the proceeds from player sales as capital to spend on new players.
The situation is more or less similar to Sadio Mane, when he was released to Bayern Munich in the summer of 2022. At that time, Mane was sold when he only had a year remaining on his contract. Regarding this transfer style, it was previously seen in the transfer of Alisson and Virgil Van Dijk, most of whose funds came from the sale of Philippe Coutinho to Barcelona, in the January 2018 transfer market.
There is also the transfer of Darwin Nunez (2022), part of the funds for which comes from Sadio Mane’s transfer to Bayern Munich. For the 2023 summer transfer market, this strategy was also repeated, when the funds from the sale of Fabinho and Jordan Henderson to the Saudi Arabian club were immediately used to bring in Wataru Endo and Ryan Gravenberch.
So, it is not a surprise that Mohamed Salah’s transfer to a Saudi Arabian club (if it really happens) will be the key to determining the Reds’ transfer steps. Regarding Leroy Sane, the media in England and Germany are united in calling the Bayern Munich player a serious target for Liverpool. Kopites’ favorite team is even said to be ready to make the winger the club’s most expensive transfer record.
If we refer to his track record, this German national team player does have a good profile. He has won various trophies with Bayern Munich, and has conquered the rigors of the Premier League competition while defending Manchester City, between 2016-2020.
It could be said that this German-Senegalese half-breed player has the ideal profile as a replacement for Mohamed Salah. However, if you look at Liverpool’s spending habits, especially in the Juergen Klopp era, Sane’s transfer to Merseyside will probably only end up being a rumor.
The reason is, since being handled by Klopp, Liverpool rarely brings in players over 27 years old. Even if there is, it is only to increase the stock of experienced players, for short or medium term needs, as in the case of the transfers of Adrian, Wataru Endo, Ragnar Klavan and Thiago Alcantara.
Based on this experience and the crucial role that Salah is (possibly) leaving behind, the possibility of Sane coming to Liverpool is not big enough. Moreover, in January 2024, the former Schalke coach will be 28 years old.
28 years old is still the peak period of performance for a footballer, but not Liverpool’s “type”. In addition, Sane had a history of serious knee ligament injuries when he was at Manchester City and was caught fighting with Sadio Mane at Bayern Munich. For information, Salah was brought in in 2017, when he was still 25 years old. Since joining, this left-handed player from Egypt has rarely been injured or suspended.
Even if he received a yellow card, the former Chelsea player mostly got it because he celebrated “taking off his jersey” after scoring a goal in the final minutes of the match. Apart from being in prime condition, the former AS Roma player’s performance is also solid. It is proven that his name was recorded as the top scorer in the Premier League three times, and twice as the Best African Player. This does not include various other achievements, both individual and team.
So, the news about Leroy Sane’s transfer to Liverpool could be said to be a bit doubtful. Even though he is left-handed and has fantastic dribbling abilities, Liverpool will not break the club’s transfer record carelessly. Juergen Klopp’s team usually prioritizes potential young players for long-term plans, thankfully he is also a left-footed right wing like Salah.
So, it would make more sense if names like Johan Bakayoko (PSV Eindhoven, 20 years), Michael Olise (Crystal Palace, 21 years), Bryan Mbeumo (Brentford, 24 years), Moussa Diaby (Aston Villa, 24 years) and Karim Adeyemi (Borussia Dortmund, 21 years old) is on the radar. In other words, Leroy Sane’s name is just a diversionary strategy.
Incidentally, apart from being 24 years old or less, the names I wrote are above average left-handed. Johan Bakayoko even decided to stay at PSV, even though the Dutch Eredivisie club had agreed to a bargain
at Brentford at the end of the 2023 summer transfer market, because his name was on Liverpool’s transfer radar next season.
In fact, for a typical player like Salah, the Reds already have Ben Doak (17) as a backup. It’s just that, even though he has great potential, this left-handed wing from Scotland still needs time to develop. With the high standards he has set since joining, Liverpool clearly needs a successor with at least close to the same level, like Mohamed Salah.
But, for now, they need to focus on fighting to qualify for the Champions League next season, so that they have a better bargaining position in the transfer market. Interestingly, if Salah ends up going to Saudi Arabia, this will mark the end of the team’s front line “Rebuild” process, as well as the beginning of a new cycle, at least for the next 5-7 years, as we previously saw with the Firmino-Mane trident. The absence of a figure who has been quite synonymous with the team may feel strange at first, but when the transition goes smoothly, everything should be fine.
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