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Liverpool and Roma have agreed a transfer fee of around £35M for Mohamed Salah. The player has also agreed terms on a five-year deal worth around £90k per week. All that is left is for the 25-year-old to make it to Merseyside for his medical and for the club to run pictures of him leaning against things at Melwood.
At least according to a slew of reports out of Egypt and Italy, from Yallakora and Sky Italy. Following a transfer saga that has often seen those Egyptian and Italian reports out in front of journalists with ties to Liverpool, and with Salah preparing to fly in for said medical, there is a high likelihood that those reports are correct.
Following the embarrassment of the Virgil van Dijk apology, news has been harder to come by from the Liverpool end. It has meant that, since then at least, it has been outlets in Egypt and Italy reporting the Salah news before the English papers scramble to try to confirm it on the Liverpool end, often a day or so later.
Such was the case with news of a medical being booked for Wednesday and then of Salah flying out on Tuesday. In both cases, English outlets were initially skeptical. In both cases, the same reporters with Sky and Yallakora now saying the deal is done pending the medical turned out to have been correct.
Not that this time it’s a massive leap to assume a deal is done. Salah, after all, is flying to England shortly. There have been reports for weeks now that the player has agreed terms, at least in principle, with the club. News, sourced from the Roma end, that the fee has been agreed is just putting a bow on it.
Still, after the difficulties with Van Dijk and with the way the Salah story has dragged on, it’s a nice bow to have; for the club to have secured their first major signing of the summer, a 19-goal scorer from the wing for a relative bargain and a player who on paper at least perfectly fills one of Liverpool’s main needs.