One of the more interesting revelations at Liverpool this week is that they reportedly agreed terms with Ismaila Sarr with a view to a transfer last month.
As we know, that deal didn’t come to fruition as Liverpool reportedly balked at his £35 million asking price, in the end deciding against signing the Senegal international.
“Everything was done, the monthly salary and the length of the contract. I even asked Sadio Mane to find him an apartment,” Sarr’s agent said.
“But, in the end, the English club could not put 40 million euros (£35 million) on the table to finalise this case.”
This is certainly interesting to hear, and while missing out on a signing is always frustrating, we can’t help but feel Liverpool have had a lucky escape here.
Now, that’s not to say that Sarr is a bad player, but there is a strong argument to make that Liverpool already have two players better than him who haven’t been used this season.
Indeed, just like Sarr, Harry Wilson and Harvey Elliott are two right-wingers playing in the Championship this term, and there’s reason to believe they’re better than the £35m man.
Of course, the easiest way to judge an attacking player’s ability is by his goal contributions and Sarr actually has fewer than both Wilson and Elliott this term, grabbing five goals and two assists, compared to Wilson’s three goals and seven assists and Elliott’s four goals and eight assists.
There’s the argument to be made that Sarr has done it in the Premier League, but let’s not forget that he was outscored by Wilson last season, despite the fact the Wales international played over 400 fewer minutes than him.
Football is obviously about more than just goals and assists, but if you’re forking out £35m for an attacking player, those stats are the two most important things, and we have to say that it would be foolish for Liverpool to spend such a fee on a player with worse attacking output than two of their loanees in the Championship this term.
The Reds would be better off saving their money and promoting one of Elliott or Wilson to a more prominent role.
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