Enjoying the happiest moment of his career, more so after the heartbreak of Kyiv in 2018, Salah was unscrupulously pressed by a Movistar+ reporter, to which his response was 'I don't want to discuss my future now' and he evaded subsequent follow up questions.
AS has somehow twisted and interpreted that exchange as 'throwing doubt' onto his Liverpool future, bizarrely alleging, '...with the forward not ruling out a move, ears have pricked up in the Spanish capital - and in Manchester and Munich, too'.
As a result, in their eyes, he has 're-emerged as a summer target at Real Madrid', while the English tabloids have ferociously picked up on the truly farcical Manchester United link - imagine Salah leaving the best team in Europe for the walking wounded sixth best in England!
The Spanish publication are going with both barrels because a separate but similar AS report also claims Salah's comments 'have helped reawaken the interest of Real Madrid'.
How a player refusing to discuss a completely unrelated matter when he wanted to celebrate winning the biggest club trophy in world football with his teammates is enough to reach that conclusion is anyone's guess. But that is what they're saying. If they tell themselves enough, perhaps they'll start to believe it is true.
AS alleges that Salah's future will come down to 'three key people'. Those are figures are Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp, agent Ramy Abbas, and teammate Sadio Mane.
The Spanish sports daily is quick to bring in the 'furious spat' between Salah and Klopp earlier this season that they themselves reported on. At this point it is important to note that Abbas responded immediately to that claim at the time by tweeting ,'Talking out of their AS again, I see'.
Talking out of their AS again I see.
— Ramy Abbas Issa (@RamyCol) 17 April 2019
In other words, he called bullsh*t as soon as it came out. AS claim that Abbas will play a huge role in Salah's future, but it seems fairly clear he has little interest in moving his client on.
Mane is billed as someone whose influence could also see Salah stay put. The pair enjoy a great personal friendship and even apparently have plans to meet up in Egypt over summer.
AS clings onto loose, throw away quotes from Liverpool legends Graeme Souness and John Barnes that are born out of personal hunches and not actual facts, with the former quoted as saying it will be 'very difficult' to keep Salah in the long-term. The source of that two-word quote isn't revealed, but not once do the words 'very difficult' appear in the interview Souness gave to the Irish Independent this week in which he addressed Salah, Mane and Real Madrid.
The quotes AS use from Barnes to support their case are laughably close to a year old, and therefore his words do not take into account Liverpool's 97-point Premier League campaign or the fact that they are now champions of Europe ahead of clubs like Real Madrid or Barcelona.
"If Real Madrid offered £200m for Salah then he'd go and Liverpool would then be a selling club," he said in 2018. But let's briefly assume the time frame is irrelevant and things haven't been altered by events of the last 12 months, Real Madrid still do not have £200m (€225m) to spend.
The club has already spent €50m on Eder Militao, around €60m on Luka Jovic and are trying to close a deal for Eden Hazard that could easily exceed €100m. With the squad also in need of further strengthening in other areas and longstanding claims the club has to sell to buy, there is not a chance this summer that they will spend a world record fee on Salah, or indeed anyone.
But we know how the Spanish media works and this won't be the last we hear of this one...
Source : 90min