Liverpool star Mohamed Salah has the Midas Touch... so expect an audacious Real Madrid transfer bid - Garth Crooks

Salah is the favourite to win this season's Premier League Golden Boot
AFP/Getty Images
Tom Doyle19 March 2018

Liverpool fans should prepare themselves for the prospect of losing Mohamed Salah to Real Madrid after the Egypt star's "extraordinary" season, says Garth Crooks.

Salah scored four goals in Liverpool's 5-0 win over Watford on Saturday, taking the lead in the Premier League Golden Boot race with 28 goals so far this season - four more than Tottenham striker Harry Kane.

The 25-year-old is now just two League goals off 30 for the 2017-18 season - a feat which has been achieved only nine times before in the Premier League era, by seven different players.

With 36 goals in all competitions for his club, Salah has been compared with Diego Maradona and Lionel Messi by his coach Jurgen Klopp.

Getty Images

But due to Salah's stunning campaign, former Tottenham forward Crooks believes that the Egyptian could follow Gareth Bale's example by leaving the Premier League for the Bernabeu if he continues this form.

"Everything this man touches seems to turn to gold," he wrote in his BBC Sport column.

"Thirty-six goals in 41 appearances for Liverpool is quite extraordinary.

"Former Liverpool greats like Peter Thompson and Steve Heighway never got anywhere near that return.

"Liverpool fans may have to brace themselves, however, for an audacious bid from Real Madrid in the summer.

"This lad is having the same impact across Europe as Gareth Bale had in his final season at Tottenham.

"And we all know what happened after that."

In Pictures | Liverpool vs Watford | 17/03/2018

1/25

Real Madrid have a history of poaching the top talent in the Premier League, with the likes of Bale, Luka Modric, Xabi Alonso, Cristiano Ronaldo and David Beckham all making the switch to Spain at the peak of their powers.

Liverpool fans will also be well aware that Real's fierce rivals Barcelona have made a recent habit of signing Anfield's top attackers, with Luis Suarez and Philippe Coutinho now plying their trade at the Camp Nou.

Klopp said of Salah followinh his four-goal haul against Watford: "Mo is on the way, that's good. I don't think that Mo or anybody else wants to be compared with Lionel Messi.

"He (Messi) has been doing what he's been doing for what feels like 20 years or so... the last player I know who had the same influence on a team performance was Diego Maradona."

Getty Images

"Mo is on a fantastic way... but how it always is in life, if you have the skills then you have to show it constantly.

"His consistency is good for us. He helps us a lot, the boys love playing with him, he loves playing with them, so it's good."

Additional reporting by Reuters.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in