Liverpool legend John Barnes has said that Mohamed Salah deserves respect for not choosing to play in Saudi Arabia. He recently had his say while speaking to the press, and fans have been reacting.
Stressing that Salah could have easily taken the easy and lucrative route, Barnes stated that the Egyptian forward should be praised for deciding to continue playing in the competitive Turkish league.
John added that if Mo wanted a comfortable transfer, he would have joined Besiktas or Fenerbahce, not Trabzonspor.
His words, “Well, what other option do you have? We don’t know. Easy option probably, we don’t know whether the Saudi thing came back. We don’t know. It was there last year. Is it there this year?
Mo Salah was never going to be the same player last year as he was the year before. Which meant that I think he probably stayed a year too long. You know, had he gone to Saudi then of course he would have been, I’m not saying given up on football but he would have made his money playing in front of 2,000 people. Whereas now he’s gone to a league whereby he still will be judged because that’s a good league.
They’re not one of the best teams in the league. They’re not a Besiktas or a Fenerbahce. So obviously I respect him for the fact that he’s gone to a club like that whereby he’s still going to have to perform. So yeah, only time will tell as to what lies in store for Mo Salah.
They’re not going to be necessarily compared to Mo because they will be playing in a different way. Because of course a new manager plays in a different style.
New managers play you in that role, but you’re going to create for somebody else to score rather than score yourself. You’re not filling Mo’s shoes. You’re playing differently. So you’re not coming to be Mo Salah, you’re coming to be yourself.
And if you sign someone to play in that role, unless you’re going to sign a Mo Salah lookalike or a playalike, which I don’t think you’re going to, then you’re not coming there to do what Mo did.
So if you can create goals and not score goals and the team’s still winning, that’s what you’re there to do. You’re not there to replace Mo.
The whole team has to play in a better way because when Mo was there last year, we didn’t play particularly well or finish anywhere. That’s what you’re coming to do. You’re not replacing Mo Salah from five years ago who scored lots of goals. So yeah, I don’t think that any player coming to Liverpool would be under pressure to do that.”
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