Al-Ittihad are prepared to go up to £200million in their bid to prise Mohamed Salah from Liverpool.
The Anfield club have rejected an offer of £150m but that hasn’t deterred the Saudi Pro league club who will carry on pushing for Salah until their window closes on September 7.
Mail Sport reported earlier this week that despite Liverpool’s continued resistance and Jurgen Klopp’s determination to keep his talismanic forward, the Saudis want Salah as the symbol of the new project and are prepared to break the £198million Paris St Germain paid Barcelona for Neymar in 2017.
Talks have been ongoing for months but have intensified in recent days with the Saudi pro League hierarchy basing themselves in Cannes in the south of France to conduct negotiations.
Liverpool director Mike Gordon rejected proposals on Thursday night and today they have re-iterated the 31-year-old is not for sale and consider the case closed.
Salah, who scored 30 goals in all competitions for Liverpool last season, is part of the club’s leadership group and signed a new three-year contract last summer, which made him the highest-paid player in Liverpool history.
Klopp has admitted concern about the wages on offer for players and the Saudi window being open longer so that they can carry on distracting players with what is on offer.
Liverpool are only too aware there may come a point when economics begin to dominate over the immediate sporting project for Salah.
Liverpool staff have been sounding out agents to determine who is available in the market but finding the calibre of player to replace such a performer is difficult at this stage, hence their stance so far
The clubs have continued to insist any and all offers for the 31-year-old will be rejected given Salah’s importance to Jurgen Klopp’s side and the lateness in the transfer window.
One of the big concerns for Liverpool is that the European transfer window closes on Friday September 1 at 11pm, while the Saudi market remains open until September 7.
