Poor Roma. They sold their best player only to seem him have the best season of his career and become the best player in the world right now and then he helped take them to the brink of a Champions League exit. Now their transfer chief explains why they sold him.
No one could have expected Mo Salah to have the kind of season he's having, not Jurgen Klopp, not Mo Salah himself and certainly not the club who sold him to Liverpool.
If Roma had any idea just how well the Egyptian winger was going to take to the Premier League at his second attempt, having previously played unsuccessfully for Chelsea, then they may have asked for a world record fee for him.
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Mo Salah in a chippy proving just how much a man of Liverpool he is:
Instead they sold him to Liverpool for 'just' £50 million, which includes extras that there's every chance the 25 year old will trigger, and saw Neymar break the transfer record instead.
Speaking to Spanish radio station Onda Cero. Roma director of football Monchi explained that UEFA's Financial Fair Play rules were behind the need for the Romans to sell their best attacking player, saying.
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"We had a need to sell. We had no option but to sell Salah before June 30.
"Had we not done that, we probably wouldn't be here playing the semi-final of the Champions League as we had Uefa closely monitoring us.
"We had to take an offer before the end of the month. He wanted to leave, but we would have kept him if the regulations weren't against us.
"When I arrived, the offer [from Liverpool] was €30 million (£26 million) but we managed to get it up to almost €50m (£43m) with bonuses. That is what we could do. The market then went crazy with Neymar, Coutinho and Dembele."
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Of course no one could have expected Salah to bag 43 goals in his first season with Jurgen Klopp's side, after all his previous career best scoring season was last year when he only bagged 19 goals.
Salah has outshone the world record transfer fee signing Neymar by quite someway in fact and Roma will be cursing their luck that PSG didn't make their move for the Brazilian sooner.
To rub salt into the wound the Ligue 1 champions are themselves under investigation for breaking FFP rules with some rumours they could be forced to sell a big name before the summer.
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Just how much Salah would be worth now is unthinkable. How Roma wish they hadn't had to sell.
Featured Image Credit:Topics: Liverpool, Football News, PSG, Neymar, Roma, Premier League, Champions League, Mo Salah