Rumour Mongering: PSG Interested in Salah as Mbappé Replacement

Two of the biggest transfer rumours involving Liverpool Football Club in recent months have centered around Kylian Mbappé and Mohamed Salah. Liverpool are said to be one of the few clubs with a legitimate chance to pry Mbappé away from the French Capital, and there are nonstop rumblings that Salah might want a change of scenery. Well now, those two stories are linking up!

According to ESPN’s Julien Laurens, unnamed sources have indicated that if Mbappé does end up moving this summer, Mohamed Salah will be on Paris Saint-Germain’s list of potential replacements.

On the surface, the idea does make some sense. Salah would fetch a hefty sum if he were sold, upward of 80 million Euros according to ESPN, and a large cash infusion would be an absolute necessity if Liverpool were to truly pursue Mbappé. Additionally, it would make sense to sell one of the forwards currently on the roster if LFC were going to bring in a superstar striker.

Where the logic begins to fall apart is when examining Liverpool’s track record with buying and selling players. The main idea behind the many rumours of Salah’s imminent departure have to do with the fact that Liverpool supposedly haven’t offered him a contract extension. So, some say if he isn’t going to be extended beyond the two years remaining on his contract, it makes sense to sell him now rather than hold on to him and see his value drop as his contract winds down.

However, as we are seeing with Gini Wijnaldum right now and Emre Can in the not-so-distant past, Liverpool aren’t against letting a player's contract expire rather than sell him prematurely. Of course, Gini and Can were never going to fetch 80m Euros either, so it’s not exactly the same scenario, but Gini and Can both show that Liverpool aren’t scared of risking a transfer fee if a player is part of their current plans.

More importantly, even a Salah sale doesn’t actually solve the financial issues that have been front and center every single time the idea of Mbappé to Liverpool has been floated. Liverpool won’t have a very big transfer budget on the heels of more than a year of COVID handicapped revenues, and Salah’s sale alone wouldn’t put enough money in the transfer kitty to afford the astronomical transfer fee and wages of a player like Mbappé.

So no, Liverpool are probably not going to sign Mbappé. And since a Salah sale is likely to happen only to fund a big-time signing, but Liverpool really can’t afford Mbappé even if they sell Salah, they probably aren’t going to sell him.

Unfortunately, this has been the case all along and it still hasn’t stopped a never-ending stream of rumours. So, don’t expect them to go away any time soon.