Former Liverpool midfielder Danny Murphy has spoken out about Liverpool’s decision to sell Sadio Mane and keep Mohamed Salah, stating he’s ‘happy with what they’ve done’.
Sadio Mane recently departed Liverpool for Bayern Munich, in a £35.1million transfer, which is deemed to be a bargain for a player of his quality.
The Senegal international featured 269 times for Liverpool in his 7 years at the club, scoring 120 goals for the Reds.
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During his time at Anfield, Mane won the Champions League, Premier League, FA Cup, League Cup, Club World Cup and UEFA Super Cup.
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Many believe it will be almost impossible to replace the impact Mane had at the club but with the recent signing of Darwin Nunez, But Danny Murphy believes Liverpool made the right decision cashing in on the forward, whose contract was set to expire next summer.
Speaking to Anfield Watch, Murphy had this to say on the sale of Sadio Mane:
“Dealing with Mane, I don’t think when a player has his eye on leaving there is that much choice in the matter.”
“Liverpool planned for it well, bringing in (Luis) Diaz before Mane left, and he is ultimately the guy who will play the majority of the games on the left.”
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"He has very simple traits in many ways with that wonderful tenacity and skillset.”
“So that was clever, and now bringing in Darwin Nunez means they still have competition for places as well as replacing Mane’s goals output that was such a huge factor in Liverpool’s success.”
Mane’s transfer could have had a huge knock-on effect for Liverpool, with Mohamed Salah’s contract still up in the air at the time of Mane’s departure, there were murmurs that Salah’s time at Liverpool would be coming to an end if they couldn’t agree on his wage demands.
But Liverpool recently announced the renewal of Salah’s contract that could see him earning up to a whopping £400,000 a week.
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Despite the huge wages, Murphy also believes keeping Salah was a master stroke for the club.
“After Mane left, keeping Salah became very important for the club. To lose both would have been a huge blow because from a footballing point of view continuity is a good thing in terms of people knowing each other’s roles and having relationships,” Said Murphy.
"And I don’t think Salah is the kind of player who will fall into a comfort zone and drop his levels just because he’s got more money.”
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"He’s got plenty anyway and he still keeps scoring a stupid amount of goals and playing to a high level. So, I’m not concerned about that.”
"From a business point of view I think it’s really shrewd because if it’s the four hundred grand that has been reported, you’re talking twenty million a year.”
"If you’re trying to bring in someone to replace the goals that Salah scores, then that’s going to cost a lot more than twenty million and that’s before you start on the wages. So keeping him makes sense.”
Topics: Sadio Mane, Mohamed Salah, Liverpool
Will Beaman