Liverpool had Douglas Costa, Gelson Martins and Keita Balde Diao lined up if a deal for top target Mo Salah hit the buffers in the summer of 2017, according to the Liverpool Echo.
Where would the Reds be right now if they had not finally pushed through a deal to bring an Egyptian winger to Anfield three years ago?
While Sadio Mane, Virgil van Dijk and co have certainly played their part, Salah is perhaps the biggest reason why Liverpool have been transformed from perennial underachievers into the greatest football club on planet earth during the Jurgen Klopp era.
A man let go by Chelsea has hit 91 goals in just 144 games for the Merseyside giants. And, whenever the beautiful game is safe to resume, Salah is all-but guaranteed to add a Premier League winner’s medal to last year’s Champions League triumph.
Back in 2017, however, a deal that will go down as one of the best in Liverpool’s history was hanging in the balance.
Roma were determined to keep Salah at the Stadio Olimpico and, at the time, the Reds had even gone as far as to identify potential alternatives before a £37 million transfer was belatedly agreed.
The Echo claims that Brazil speedster Douglas Costa, then of Bayern Munich and now of Juventus, was in the frame. As were the Sporting Lisbon youngster Gelson Martins and Lazio goal-machine Keita Balde Diao.
Flash forward to the present day, however, and it’s fair to say none of that trio can match Salah’s achievements. Costa has at least lifted a trophy or two in Turin but he has never really rediscovered the golden touch that once made him the beast of Bavaria.
Martins and Keita, meanwhile, have struggled to live up to such lofty expectations and are now plying their trade at Monaco.
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