Harvey Elliott is just like any other Liverpool fan — he doesn’t want Mohamed Salah to leave. The Reds managed to hold back interest from Saudi Arabia during the summer, despite a monumental $186m (£150m/€174m) bid coming in from Al-Ittihad, but that is almost certainly not the end of the story.
Salah has already been earmarked as the Saudi Pro League’s biggest target. Given his record over the years and his links to the Arab world, it would certainly be a huge coup for the Gulf state if he were to make the move to the Middle East.
And with the 31-year-old set to enter the final year of his contract at Anfield next summer, it does feel as though this saga could have a pretty clear end to it, although not if Elliott has anything to do with it.
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"Touch wood he doesn't ever leave but if he does go then I want to be that person to learn from him and apply it in my game," Elliott said after Saturday’s win over Wolves (via the ECHO). "Hopefully, as I say, he doesn't leave and he's here for the rest of his career. I will do my best [to keep him] but to be just learning from him and in the same team as him, is just a dream come true as well as everyone else in the team."
The case for Salah staying is clear. He’s among Liverpool’s top five goal-scorers of all time, and this season he’s showing he’s just as important as a creative force. Nevertheless, you can’t shake the feeling that a move to Saudi Arabia feels somewhat inevitable eventually, especially given the money the Reds would receive.
Therefore, Liverpool will have to find a way to replace that contribution to the side, and Elliott could be seen as sounding himself out as the man to take up Salah’s role on the right.
But perhaps Jürgen Klopp could replicate that creativity elsewhere. And perhaps he’s had the wheels in motion for some time now.
The Champions League and Premier League title wins in 2019 and 2020 were built with a midfield that had a clear purpose — to function as a hard-working unit and enable the front three and full-backs to offer the attacking threat in the side.
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Over the years though, Klopp has sought to add some more nous and creativity to the engine room. Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Naby Keïta were the original solutions, but injuries meant neither truly worked out.
Thiago Alcântara followed in 2020, but again his time at Anfield has been stop/start due to his time on the sidelines. Over the past few months though, the shift in midfield looks to have finally taken off.
Trent Alexander-Arnold’s new role as a hybrid right-back brought some much-needed guile to the middle at the end of last season, and the additions of Alexis Mac Allister and Dominik Szoboszlai in the summer have seen Liverpool’s midfield take on a new persona.
Elliott himself looks set to be a big part of that. Still aged just 20, Klopp has made no secret of his plan to turn him into a midfielder after he originally arrived from Fulham as a right winger.
Learning from Salah, then, might not necessarily point to Elliott replacing him outright. Clearly, the midfield is being set up as a new creative hub for Liverpool, and one which could help to cover the output that may be lost if/when Salah does eventually depart.
Klopp has been trying for years, but it seems he finally has his dream midfield set-up in place, and Elliott could add yet another new dimension to it as he learns from the Egyptian King.
