For some, it’s the battle for football’s soul.
Liverpool vs Al Ittihad; Mo Salah is the ball.
Historic people’s club vs Saudi oil riches. English Premier League (EPL) vs Saudi Arabian Pro League (SPL).
Whichever way it’s dressed up, it’s football vs money, and there can only be one winner. Can’t there?
Writing with the window still open, Liverpool have possession: but in football possession is never 9/10ths of the game.
The Reds want to keep him; the Saudis won’t take no for an answer. Something has to give.
Despite Liverpool’s valiant defence, Saudi attacks keep coming. Wave after wave. £120million. £150m. £200m!
Surely no one can resist that. A world record fee for a 31-year-old?
And what about Salah himself? He’s being offered mind-boggling sums that make Cristiano Ronaldo look like he’s on income support.
£2.5m a week!
Salah is not Ronaldo. Nor is he Lionel Messi. But he’s absolutely brilliant and shows little sign of slacking even at his advanced age.
What makes him so appealing to the Saudis is that in the Gulf he is more popular than either of that illustrious duo and is the first Arab superstar footballer.
In the entire Arab world, Salah is No 1.
Getting him would be not just a prized catch but seen as a tipping point in world football’s balance of power.
So far, most of the players recruited in this summer splurge have been in the twilight of their careers.
Salah is approaching that stage but is still one of the EPL’s star attractions.
His loss would be a huge setback to the league as well as a devastating blow to Liverpool.
Coming after the unexpected losses of Jordan Henderson and Fabinho, it would effectively scupper their season.
It would also be seen as more than mere sportswashing.
Saudi Arabia is hellbent on establishing a sporting empire as part of its Vision 2030.
It is hosting an expanded World Club Championship next year and has visions of its clubs playing in the Champions League.
It even wants to stage the World Cup.
And so far, no one has been able to stop them. Money isn’t just talking; it’s calling the tune.
Saudi clubs have already plundered the EPL at will. At Liverpool alone, they’ve already disrupted Jurgen Klopp’s midfield rebuild.
And to lose Salah now, with the window closed, would be nothing short of catastrophic.
Just as the team is beginning to click and the new signings are bedding in, losing the talisman would kill off the new-found optimism at a stroke.
The Egyptian King is irreplaceable.
Some people are saying the money is too good to refuse as Liverpool could buy three top players with it.
But the January transfer window is the next opportunity and by then they could be out of title contention.
Liverpool fans worry that as the club is self-financing, the owners may just cave in, unable to look such a gift-horse in the mouth.
Fenway Sports Group (FSG) has a mixed record when it comes to transfers.
They have coughed up big-time for Virgil van Dijk, Allison and Darwin Nunez, but kept a tight rein on the purse strings last year when the squad was crying out for midfielders.
How they react to an anticipated world-record offer (£2m more than what PSG paid for Neymar) will be eagerly awaited by the whole football world.
And then there’s Salah himself. Currently earning £350k a week, unlike many of his peers, he is more of a philanthropist than hedonist.
He has done wonders to raise the living standards of his own people in the Nile Delta area of Egypt, and any stupendous wage offer to him is likely to see him give even more generously.
But even on the final day of the window, it could go either way.
Klopp, too, will be anxiously awaiting developments. He might just sense that this squad can challenge for the top places – as long as Salah stays.
The EPL will certainly be hoping FSG hold their nerve and resist the overtures.
Indeed, all but the more partisan rivals will be hoping so. He is after all one of the EPL’s biggest drawcards.
Some pundits are already claiming that Saudi is winning the sporting war and point to LIV Golf’s victory over the PGA Tour as a sign of the kingdom’s irresistible power.
More departures are inevitable whether Salah is one of them or not. And his going would only increase that number.
But there’s more to Europe’s football hegemony than money. More than a century of entertaining the masses cannot be bought.
An almost religious following in every town in every major country cannot be replicated on the stony ground of a desert kingdom.
Liverpool has been going since 1892. Anfield is a shrine where the ghosts of legends stalk its corridors.
Manchester United, Barcelona and Real Madrid think similarly of their homes and, like Liverpool, boast diasporas of hundreds of millions around the world.
Saudi Arabia is a football country with a young population that is eagerly embracing what is going on. But many of its clubs and stadiums are lower league standard.
Broadcasters are looking to show more of the SPL’s games, but a mass exodus of footballers of all ages would be required to pose a serious threat.
Liverpool will eventually lose its talisman – if not now, probably next summer when it’s had time to find a replacement. But it’s soul?
Money cannot buy that.
The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of FMT.