The January transfer window is closed but there’s still LIVE Liverpool talk of Kylian Mbappe and Mo Salah…
 
Salah Mbappe Salah blah blah blah Liverpool
We’re all in the clicks business; we know how this sh*t works.

And there’s little doubt that man in the Mirror and Liverpool propagandist Mark Jones (who featured in these pages on Monday after Liverpool’s defeat in which ‘nothing was lost’) sat down to write his latest piece with one intention: Get the words ‘Mbappe’, ‘Salah’ and ‘Liverpool’ into one headline. It’s a noble pursuit.
And that’s how we land here:

Mo Salah watching Kylian Mbappe’s three Real Madrid demands amid Liverpool contract issue

Is he ‘watching’? Well, it literally takes one paragraph to concede that ‘Mo Salah is likely to be keeping a watching brief’.
That’s not the same thing. And you know it.
The situation is that Mbappe – whose contract expires this summer – has made several eye-watering demands of Real Madrid as he runs down his PSG contract.

The likelihood is that something will give during the negotiations and that Real will eventually get their man, for that is what Mbappe has wanted all along, despite his fondness for Liverpool and the Reds’ admirable persistence in keeping in contact with him should the opportunity arise to sign him.
That chance hasn’t yet materialised in any real way, but the presence of Salah means that it hasn’t had to. But now having entered the final 18 months of his contract, and with Jurgen Klopp rounding his final lap as Liverpool manager, suddenly there are questions circulating around Liverpool’s prolific forward.

It really is ‘admirable’ that Liverpool have ‘kept in contact’ with one of the world’s most brilliant footballers. This really does mean more.
‘Suddenly’ there are questions about Salah? Bollocks. There were shedloads of questions about Salah last summer when it became clear that he was the dream signing for Saudi Arabian clubs and that he could clearly be tempted.
But we’re still not quite grasping the connection between Salah and Mbappe’s Real Madrid demands, despite the writer’s best efforts to link the two.

The prospect of a money-spinning switch to Saudi Arabia has of course been on the cards for Salah ever since last summer, but would he really want to go yet? He’ll turn 32 in the summer, is in superb shape bar the recent hamstring injury, and is still arguably the best player in the Premier League.

‘Arguably’ is doing a shedload of lifting in that sentence; Rodri, Kevin de Bruyne and Erling Haaland all want a piece of that argument.

What about a move to another European powerhouse then? Perhaps Paris Saint-Germain in the summer once Mbappe has departed? It would certainly be a better sporting move than Saudi, and if Salah fancies a change of scenery while still operating in Europe then it would make sense.
That is why he is likely to be monitoring the movements around Mbappe pretty closely, both in terms of a new contract he could negotiate with Liverpool and a potential switch to another club if he fancies one.

There’s that word ‘likely’ again. There is a chance that Salah might fancy a switch to PSG but the idea that he could negotiate a new contract with Liverpool that takes inspiration from Mbappe’s demands of Real Madrid is absurd. Mbappe is seven years his junior; there is no parity here.
But that really doesn’t matter because Salah, Mbappe and Liverpool.
READ MORE: Van Dijk and Salah exit? Ranking Liverpool squad by how likely they are to follow Klopp out
 
NOT Liverpool transfer news LIVE
Obviously, the masters of this business are the Liverpool Echo, whose daily live transfer blog (can transfers be ‘live’ outside of the transfer window?) has Mbappe in the headline approximately 87% of the time. It’s probably hard-coded now.

This is the latest LIVE Liverpool transfer news:

Liverpool transfer news LIVE – Kylian Mbappe update, Tosin Adarabioyo wanted, Mohamed Salah injury latest

The Mbappe update is that ‘Paris Saint-Germain star Kylian Mbappe has reportedly outlined his three demands for whichever club he joins this summer’.
The ‘whichever club’ is delicious because it ain’t sodding Liverpool, is it? Perhaps the blog should be renamed ‘NOT Liverpool transfer news LIVE’; more capitals can never hurt.
‘Mohamed Salah injury latest’ doesn’t sound like transfer news, but how else do you get his name in the same headline as Mbappe?
 
The BIGGEST anti-climax
You know what Mediawatch loves more than almost anything else in the media? Is it supercomputers? Nope but close. Who operates supercomputers? ‘Boffins’, that’s who.
The top story on the MailOnline football homepage is this:

The BIGGEST Premier League under-performers: Stats boffins rank Casemiro, Antony and one other Man United star alongside Enzo Fernandez… but which Liverpool stalwart topped all four of them?!

They really must be the ‘BIGGEST Premier League under-performers’ because they have rolled out the capitals.
So let’s see these BIG under-performers…

Manchester United’s recruitment in the past two years has come under plenty of criticism, and now three of their recent acquisitions have been ranked among the Premier League’s 20 biggest under-performers.

At this point you will be shocked to discover that Antony is not playing very well at the moment and neither is Casemiro. Thank f*** for those ‘boffins’, eh?

Five brilliant wingers Arsenal and Liverpool are fighting each other for after ‘stealing’ accusation

Arsenal and Liverpool may fight for two £60m Premier League forwards, a pair of phenomenal familiar faces, or a £149m option who struggles with Scouse.
Both clubs seem to be shopping in understandably similar markets for a right-winger. Arsenal want back-up and competition for Bukayo Saka, while Liverpool are preparing for whenever life without the beautiful reassurance of Mo Salah comes.
Which club will be over-celebrating one of these signings soon? It will go down well either way; Arsenal have been accused of “stealing” from Liverpool all week already, even before sharing transfer homework.

Can Spurs reach PL record? The stats...

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Pedro Neto
Arsenal and Liverpool know only too well the power that purchasing a forward from Wolves can do. Both have only ever signed one player from the Midlands club in their respective histories, and were so enamoured with the results they deigned never to repeat it for fear of jinxing anything.
Diogo Jota has been excellent for Liverpool despite some initial blurred vision as to whether his 2020 move would work, while among Alan Sunderland’s 73 goals for Arsenal was the winner in the 1979 FA Cup final, having callously scored against Wolves in the semis. Those are some powerful omens.
The Gunners and the Reds would be thrilled to give Neto the opportunity to follow those footsteps, particularly if the Portuguese could replicate his current form on a higher Premier League plane.
Gary O’Neil has coaxed some divine displays from the winger, who had a respectable 11 goals and 13 assists in 111 appearances for Wolves before this season, with three goals and 10 assists in 2023/24 as part of an unexpectedly irresistible attack.

With that comes an inevitable increase in the asking price; for a 23-year-old forward with more than three years left on his contract, £60m is pretty conservative if anything.
READ MORE: Gary O’Neil can make Liverpool target Pedro Neto his first signing after replacing Jurgen Klopp in 2026
In-form Wolves star Pedro Neto.
 
Michael Olise
There remains an element of mystery as to the exact figure written into Olise’s contract as a release clause, but reports suggest it sits around a similar mark, close to double the £35m Chelsea were willing to pay before the Frenchman baulked because he wanted to put his hamstrings through a season of Roy Hodgson.
That understandable decision has nevertheless offered only frustratingly fleeting glimpses of Olise, who has still crammed six goals and three assists into his 755 minutes for an otherwise stodgy, uninspiring and perhaps eminently doomed Crystal Palace.

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Olise has been earmarked as the first signing of the new Man Utd era, while Chelsea are certain to still be sniffing around. But Arsenal and Liverpool should be able to strong-arm those suitors out of the race by playing the European competition card. They can have a fair fight from that point – until La Liga champions Girona sign Olise and kindly loan him to Manchester City.
 
Raphinha
Things have not exactly gone all Kalvin Phillips for Raphinha, but nor has the Nou Camp grass been much greener. Arsenal and Chelsea sought to tempt the Brazilian into retaining his Premier League status in summer 2022 but they were powerless to resist those economic levers.
Barcelona committed up to £55m for Raphinha’s services; he has made 48 starts in the 18 months since. A total of 14 goals and 19 assists is a fine return in the grand scheme of things but those limited opportunities can grate, especially for a small pond’s big fish when chucked into a vast and often nonsensical Catalan ocean.
While Raphinha might at least stick around to see how Barcelona respond to Xavi’s imminent resignation, it would only be sensible to keep his bags packed in case Barcelona need to sell anyone to avoid total financial ruin.
 
Leroy Sane
“I can just say positive things about Mikel Arteta,” Sane once said. “Since we started working together, he helped me a lot on the pitch. He tried to improve my football, he told me what I did good and what I did wrong, and he tried to work on it.”
The feeling is entirely mutual if previous Arsenal interest is anything to go by. Liverpool have also considered the credentials of a player whose Premier League past was brief but brilliant, with 39 goals and 46 assists in 135 appearances for Manchester City.
Sane has only developed his game further at Bayern Munich and has Harry Kane on the end of his chances now instead of Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting. Despite that setback, he has coped well enough; no player has more league assists in Europe’s top five divisions this season.

Rafael Leao
It has already been scientifically proven that Liverpool signing Leao would potentially infuriate all the right people. One of the Portuguese’s past chats with Jamie Carragher suggests he might struggle with the accent at first, but as far as Salah successors go there are few as talented.

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The AC Milan forward has been on the Arsenal radar for a while. There was some excitement in the fanbase when imminent signing Declan Rice spent some of his pre-season training with Leao in Portugal, but the presence of Bruno Fernandes and Joao Cancelo likely scuppered any undercover agent work.
Leao might also cost a bit; they recently told PSG to pay his €175m (£149m) release clause in full.

Man Utd finally acting like adults with £100m Ivan Toney decision; Chelsea and Arsenal next?

Ivan Toney is expected to leave Brentford at the end of the season.
After years of transfer briefings from Manchester United designed to make them look like a loadsamoney behemoth that can hoover up the world’s shiniest talent, it is really quite refreshing to see the club brief that they are attempting to become a club that makes sensible, considered decisions. Less ‘we are the biggest and bestest’ and more ‘we are no longer the daftest’.
Whether that’s the early influence of Omar Berrada, whose Manchester City never had to win games in the media because they were too busy destroying the opposition on the pitch, or simply a new, emerging regime with an emphasis on actual trophies rather than trophy players, it feels like a welcome (for them, not us) departure from the Banter Era.
There’s no fanciful talk from Manchester United about pursuing Kylian Mbappe, while any lofty talk about Vinicius has originated from Spain; but there have been lines fed to the press about Michael Olise and Jarrad Branthwaite amid a ‘data-driven reboot’, persistent talk of targeting players in the final year of their contracts, and now a refusal to get involved in a battle for Ivan Toney if the price is anywhere north of £70m.

After a dead January killed at source by widespread fear of FFP ramifications, the idea that any club would spend anywhere close to £100m on a 28-year-old striker is absurd. Those kind of deals should be reserved for a Ronaldo or a Harry Kane, and Toney is far from being either.
It’s not just Manchester United that should be wary but every club in the Premier League. Chelsea have long been linked with Toney but the kings of amortisation would surely not countenance a transfer in which a 30-year-old Toney would have a book value of £60m after two years of a five-year contract.

To Brentford, Toney is worth at least £100m, but a transfer fee captures a moment when a player’s value to two clubs collides, and Toney – who at 28 will be into ‘little sell-on value’ territory this summer – is not worth £100m to any prospective buyer. Never mind an actual profit (those are always rare on big-ticket players), there will never be a book profit on that purchase.
Now some will roll their eyes at such notions, but clubs do have to operate within guidelines and there are reasons why City in particular have refused to go above a certain price or a certain wage for a succession of players. Unlimited money does have limits in football; just ask Newcastle United.
If any transfer should serve as a warning to Manchester United, it is not that of Antony – whose age offers some mitigation for his inflated fee – but Casemiro. United spent an initial £60m and committed massive wages to a player who will be worth only marginally more than nothing just two years later. There is a chance that Moises Caicedo and Enzo Fernandez might catch up with their book values at some point during their mammoth contracts but Casemiro never could. It was a panic buy that only Manchester United would have made.
A summer-long pursuit of Frenkie de Jong should never have happened without concrete assurances, and there should have been a dozen alternatives with the same profile. The answer should never have been to throw a shedload of cash at an expensive, ageing money pit in the last days of the transfer window.
Toney is no Casemiro but at £100m it would be a similarly short-term purchase, and it would not even solve United’s biggest issue. It’s too easy to say that Manchester United need a goalscorer; actually, they have created far, far fewer Big Chances than even Brentford this season. It’s not that Rasmus Hojlund is missing a boatload of chances that Toney would despatch. United do need another striker but if there is a sizeable transfer pot, centre-forward should not take the bulk of that money. A chance of style is needed, not a change in personnel in one position.