Mohamed Salah has won two Premier League Golden Boot award with Liverpool (Getty Images)
According to Calciomercato (h/t ESPN), Newcastle United are trying to secure a transfer for Liverpool star Mohamed Salah. The Egyptian maestro has been on top of the goal-scoring charts of the Premier League for nearly five seasons now, but multiple clubs are now trying to land his signature.
Salah would have certainly thought that his time in the Premier League was over after his unconvincing performances at Chelsea. However, after proving himself at Fiorentina and AS Roma, Liverpool got the winger back to England, and he has since broken several goal-scoring records and might continue to do so over the course of the current season.
But will he jump ship from Anfield now? And could Newcastle actually orchestrate a deal for the superstar?
The former Roma man took his first season (2017/18) back in the Premier League by a storm as he broke the record of most goals in a single Premier League campaign (32), thereby winning the Golden Boot. He achieved the accolade in the following season as well and has narrowly missed out on winning them in the last couple of seasons.
During this process, the Egyptian international also helped the Reds win the Champions League and their first league title after 30 years. Thus, his importance is significant, and any team he goes to is likely to be guaranteed a wild number of goals season-after-season.
That is the task Newcastle are trying to achieve after they were recently taken over by the Saudi-backed consortium. The Toon Army are the richest club in the world currently, and understandably they would want the best players in the world plying their trade at St. James’ Park.
Eddie Howe is the man in charge of the rebuild but this is a club that is currently staving off relegation. It is not that they are not a big club, but they are not built to immediately win the biggest trophies in Europe – something Salah would want, given that he will turn 30 next year.
Thus, if they are to land his signature, they would definitely need to provide more than a convincing project to the winger and prove over the course of this season that they are the real deal.
It is no secret that the Geordies have all the money in the world now and could make any future signing the highest-paid player in European football. Salah is at a contract standstill with Liverpool and will enter the final year of his deal next summer if the Merseyside club cannot agree on a new contract by then.
However, ambition and finances are likely to go hand in hand for the 29-year-old. The Toon Army could offer him massive wages, but they might not be able to guarantee him success or the chance to play alongside the best players in the world.
The forward has attracted interest from Real Madrid as recently as last month, and the Spanish club can provide the prospect of a decent pay-check and major silverware to the African star. Newcastle would be better off by signing fringe players from the big clubs and honing their qualities considering their stature is nowhere near that of Los Galacticos or The Reds.
After making considerable progress in the top division, they could look at some of the bigger stars in the game and attract them by offering attractive propositions. It is a race and not a marathon, and perhaps this deal might never actually take off the ground.
