Written by James Cranford – @jamescranford89
With the Champions League Final just days away, Liverpool opened up the AXA Training Centre for a media day on Wednesday. Redmen TV’s very own Paul Machin got to see the lads being put through their paces and spent some time interviewing Jürgen’s boys. There were several newsworthy moments to occur on the day, from Trent taking free kicks wearing a brain scanner to the happy sight of Fabinho back in training.
One of the biggest pieces of news from the day was Sadio Mané announcing he would reveal his plans for the future following Saturday’s final. This indicates that he may have already made a decision whether or not to extend his successful stay at Anfield.
On the latest episode of our Journo Insight Show, we asked goal.com’s Neil Jones for the inside track on whether or not Sadio will be lining up for the Reds next season.
Neil said:
“I don’t think he will answer it [whether he is staying or going] on Saturday. I don’t think he’ll say, ’This is my last game for Liverpool’ or pull his contract out of his inside pocket. I spoke to him myself. He’s decided an approach – ‘Look, let’s put it on the back burner.’ He wanted to focus on the rest of the season and then talk about it. There are a lot of rumours of Bayern Munich. Someone from goal.com Germany wrote that it’s not as likely as it has been made out that he’ll go to Bayern Munich. I think it’s very likely that a lot of clubs will want Sadio Mané. The thread to pull at from the media day is you link him to Mo Salah. Are those two completely linked in terms of what happens to one, the opposite happens to the other? If Salah goes, does Mané stay, and vice versa? Have Liverpool decided to put their eggs in the Salah basket and take a bit of money for Mané? I think it would be a mistake to do so.”
Redmen Reacts
Sadio has impressed from day 1 during his time at Liverpool and is acknowledged to be a modern-day club legend. His recent conversion from left winger to centre-forward has rejuvenated him as a player, and he has outperformed his AFCON Final partner Mo Salah by a considerable margin since February. The club may be uneasy about offering two 30-year-olds expensive contracts, but the longevity of the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo, Karim Benzema and Robert Lewandowski shows that players that look after themselves can remain the best in Europe when others would be on the decline. The club would be foolish to let the Senegalese star leave this summer. The transfer fee would not be enormous in the context of the world of the ‘superclub’, and replacing Sadio’s goal and assist output, not to mention his tireless work-rate, would be extremely difficult.
