As Reading travelled to Watford for a crucial Championship clash between two promotion-chasing sides, Ismaila Sarr picked a good time to step on the afterburners.
Inside two first-half minutes, Watford’s £29 million record signing put the game to bed with a pair of stunning, long-range finishes. The first, wonderfully guided into the far corner with his left foot, preceeded a right-foot rocket launched at the speed of sound into the Reading net.
On this evidence, there’s an argument to be made that Sadio Mane is no longer the most in-form Senegalese forward plying his trade in English football.
While Mane struggles for form at Anfield, Sarr has produced 12 goals and ten assists this season.
And it’s no coincidence that, as soon as the former Rennes winger sparked into life, Xisco Munoz’s Watford side have hit their straps, leaving Brentford, Swansea and Bournemouth choking on their dust as they cruise towards promotion.
It looks certain, then, that Sarr will be playing Premier League football again next season. For which club… well, that’s anyone’s guess.
“Everything was done, the monthly salary and length of the contract (was agreed),” Sarr’s agent told Pan African Football, claiming his client was on the verge of a January switch to Jurgen Klopp’s side.
“I even asked Sadio Mane to find him an apartment.
“But, in the end, the English club could not put €40 million (£35 million) on the table to finalise this case.”
With Sarr firing Watford back to the big time, the red-hot winger has surely added a few more pounds to his price tag.
Have Liverpool missed their chance?
This is what some Liverpool fans had to say on Twitter about the situation:
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