It’s easy to forget, really – and a testament to Jurgen Klopp’s remarkable penchant for turning good players into great ones – that Mohamed Salah was not exactly prolific before joining Liverpool in the summer of 2017.
While stumping up respectable numbers at Fiorentina and Roma, the ‘Egyptian King’ had never broken the 20-goal barrier for a single campaign in his pre-Anfield days.
Seven years on from one of the best pound-for-pound signings in Premier League history, Mo Salah has 211 goals in 349 Liverpool games. His worst tally, meanwhile, came in the 2019/20 campaign. And even then he still struck the net 23 times.
If Albert Gudmundsson goes on to enjoy even a fraction of the success Salah has had at Liverpool, then the reported Aston Villa and Tottenham Hotspur target would be worth every penny of his own £34 million price-tag. And then some.
Tottenham and Aston Villa linked with Albert Gudmundsson
Kevin Strootman, who played alongside Salah at Roma and now shares a dressing room with Gudmundsson at Genoa, is better placed than most to draw comparisons between the two. And he feels that the one-time AZ Alkmaar forward can ‘make the same leap’ as Liverpool’s legendary number 11, having adapted brilliantly to life in Serie A.
“I said that Salah didn’t always score goals at Roma, despite being clear on goal (in one-v-one situations) four or five times per game,” Strootman tells Radio TV Serie A.
“Others said that, if he did score every time he was clear, then he would be at Real Madrid or Liverpool rather than Roma. And that is where he ended up.
“If Gud can make the same leap, I think he can do well at a super top club. He must do it to become a world-class player because his quality is already beyond doubt. He is a serious professional and I am sure he’ll do even better over the next few years.”
Serie A star earns Mo Salah comparisons
Gudmundsson, once of PSV Eindhoven, often left supporters frustrated when it came to finishing off opportunities in the Eredivisie. Few in Alkmaar would have imagined that, when he left for Genoa back in 2022, he’d have 16 goals for a team plying their trade in Italy’s top flight just two years later.
Versatile, extremely hard-working and a whizz at set-pieces, Gudmundsson may not be the direct Harry Kane replacement some Tottenham fans are craving, amid interest in Feyenoord striker Santiago Gimenez.
But if he can do something similar in North London to what Salah did on Merseyside, then the Reykjavik-born 26-year-old could bring a much-needed ruthlessness to a Spurs team who had only two players in double-figures in the 2023/24 Premier League campaign; the injury-hit Richarlison and the ageing Heung-Min Son.
Genoa CEO Andres Blazquez, meanwhile, tells Tuttomercatoweb that any club looking to sign Gudmundsson would have to part with 40 million euros. Or, if you prefer, £34 million, a fee very similar to the one Liverpool paid for Salah when the Klopp era was still in it’s infancy.
HITC, meanwhile, understands that – if Salah wants to secure a move to Saudi Arabia one year after Al-Ittihad’s £150 million bid – he will have to communicate that to the club directly.
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