- Mohamed Salah arrived back in English football with Liverpool in the summer
- He cost £39m but Roma now believe they could have received a lot more money
- Monchi says the market has changed considerably following Neymar’s PSG deal
- Salah has already scored 30 goals this season, 22 of which in the Premier League
Roma chief Monchi believes Mohamed Salah is worth a lot more than the Italian club sold him for in the summer – but they had to let him go.
The Egyptian has quickly established himself as one of the best players in the Premier League, netting his 30th goal of the season on Wednesday night.
He previously struggled to make an impact at Chelsea, but has proven to be a huge success following his £39m move to Merseyside.
Mohamed Salah has been in fine form this season, netting 30 goals already for Liverpool
Salah joined the Reds for £39m in the summer, but Roma say they could have got more
On that subject, Roma’s director of sport Monchi said: ‘I still think the price could’ve been better for Salah, but it did give us the possibility of making other moves.
‘When I arrived, the Liverpool offer for Salah was €32m plus €3m in bonuses. In today’s football, players go wherever they want to.
‘At the end of the day, we could reach €50m with bonuses, but at that moment we had to sell and that was an important option.’
Monchi believes recent purchases by the likes of Paris Saint-Germain have changed the face of football transfers, using Kylian Mbappe and Neymar as examples.
Monchi admits Roma needed to sell Salah, to ‘give us the possibility of making other moves’
The Roma chief pinpoints Neymar’s £198m move to PSG as changing the transfer market
The now-PSG pair commanded huge fees, with Neymar going for £198m, but Monchi says Roma couldn’t afford to wait around for more cash.
‘The Neymar and Kylian Mbappe transfers changed the market,’ he continued, ‘but at that moment it was necessary that we sell.
‘The figures are important, because at the end of the day we are a business, but the fans cannot be bought. In my years at Sevilla, people counted the trophies and those are so far missing at Roma.’
The Giallorossi are currently fourth in the Serie A table, 16 points off leaders Napoli after 24 matches.