Al Ettifaq take thinly-veiled dig at Al Ittihad over failed Mo Salah transfer pursuit

Al Ettifaq have taken a thinly veiled swipe at Al Ittihad's failed attempt to sign Liverpool star Mohamed Salah.

On Thursday it emerged that Demarai Gray has left Everton to join Saudi Pro League side Al Ettifaq for an undisclosed fee, thought to be in the region of £8million.

The 27-year-old Jamaica winger has signed a four-year deal with the Saudi outfit, who are managed by Steven Gerrard and include England midfielder Jordan Henderson, former Liverpool midfielder Georginio Wijnaldum, Scotland defender Jack Hendry and striker Moussa Dembele among their ranks.

And Al Ettifaq announced the signing by making a thinly veiled dig at rivals Al Ittihad’s failed attempt to sign Salah.

It had been widely claimed that Al Ittihad are ready to lodge a £200million bid for Salah ahead of Thursday's transfer deadline.

However reports in France have since claimed Salah will not leave Liverpool this year, despite being offered a contract worth between $500million and $600million (£400million-£480million) over three years.

Al Ettifaq were quick to mock Al Ittihad’s fortunes when announcing Gray via a video published on social media.

In an arcade game menu-style animation, as seen below, Liverpool were the first club selected. Indeed, the controller hovers over Alisson Becker and Luis Diaz before eventually landing on Salah.

However, when attempting to select the Egyptian a pop-up of Reds boss Jurgen Klopp appears with the word “NO!” in red block capitals, in reference to the German's insistence the 31-year-old is not for sale.

Moving on, it then scrolls across to Aston Villa and former Liverpool star Phillipe Coutinho, who was signed by Gerrard for the Midlands side last summer.

Finally, the animation settles on Everton, only for Al Ettifaq to also mock rivals Al Shabab and transfer guru Fabrizio Romano. The Italian had given the “here we go” treatment to reports Gray was set to sign for Al Shabab last month only for the transfer to ultimately fall through due to the club's new board rejecting the already-agreed-upon move.

The video concludes with Gray finally being picked as an Al Ettifaq player, appearing in the club's green home strip with the words “signing successful” cast across the screen.

Salah's agent has previously dismissed talk of a move to Saudi Arabia but has not responded following the latest links with the burgeoning league.

"Mohamed remains committed to Liverpool," agent Ramy Abbas Issa wrote in an X post on 7 August.

"If we considered leaving Liverpool this year, we wouldn't have renewed the contract last summer."

Salah has started all four of Liverpool's games this season, with Klopp's side having accumulated 10 points in their opening four games.