Rumor Mongering: The Salah to Real Madrid Narrative Kicks In

Don’t let evidence get in the way of that sweet, sweet narrative.

To paraphrase a certain former Liverpool manager, I want to talk about facts.

Real Madrid are having a very bad season. They are currently in third place in the La Liga table, fifteen points behind Barcelona. For a side most tipped to win the competition this season, that is a catastrophe. To make matters worse, the team is still extremely reliant on a 33 year old Cristiano Ronaldo, with support coming from a 30 year old Karim Benzema, while Gareth Bale turns 29 in the summer. With the exception of Marco Asensio, the young players supposed to drive Real Madrid for the next decade have struggled to fit into the side this year.

Mohamed Salah is having a very good season. His 28 goals in the Premier League are more than any other player in the top five leagues in Europe has managed to score this season, all the more impressive when you consider that he was more of a wide creator in his days at Roma. At age 25, he should now be coming into the best years of his career, providing quality for the next several seasons.

Oh, and Liverpool recently sold another star player to La Liga, pushing the ever frustrating but nonetheless out there narrative that they are a “selling club”.

So here we are. Don Balon, the Spanish outlet that has an accuracy in its transfer rumors that could charitably be described as “speculative”, and less charitably be described as “completely fictitious”, tell us that Real Madrid have made our Egyptian king a target as they look to replace Gareth Bale this summer. Not to be outdone by their Iberian counterparts, the Daily Star have picked up on this report.

The original Don Balon report does say that Salah is seen as a second choice behind Neymar, but the ever desperate narrative sniffers at the Daily Star conveniently omit this part.

Look, this is a story that’s going to rumble on for a while, fitting so easily into the existing narrative about Liverpool being a selling club. It’d be nice if everyone waited for some actual evidence of this first, but inevitably they won’t, and this is something we’re all going to have to hear for months.

But as of writing this, Salah remains a Liverpool player, and we should sit back and enjoy his performances for as long as he stays at the club.

Source: liverpooloffside.sbnation.com