Micah Richards – talent scout?
The ex-Manchester City defender is adamant he knew how good Mohamed Salah was going to be before all of us.
Salah added yet another goal and assist for Liverpool in a comfortable 2-0 win over Manchester City to put the Reds 11 points clear at the top of the Premier League.
Two more goal involvements make it 41 for the season (25 goals, 16 assists) and Salah is now just six more from the best-ever Premier League campaign.
Now widely considered an all-time great of English football, such a rise never looked possible during a failed 18-game stint at Chelsea from 2013 to 2014.
However, shortly after that, on loan at Fiorentina, then teammate Richards could tell how good the Egyptian kind was.
“We knew he was special though, even at Basel, when he went to Fiorentina, then at Roma,” Richards said after the match.
“It obviously didn’t work for him at Chelsea but when he came to the Premier League with Liverpool I just knew.”
With his fellow pundits showing some scepticism, Richards continued: “Honestly, there’s an interview where I say this player is too good for Fiorentina, we shouldn’t have him.
“He came there on loan and I just knew how special he was. His touch, his technique, how selfish he was in front of goal.
“We went to Juventus in the Coppa Italia and he ran for 40 or 50 yards against some of the best defenders in the league at the time, I just knew he was special.”
Salah is the current favourite to win the 2025 Ballon d’Or with Liverpool not just top in England, but they were the best team in the league phase of the Champions League, and have a Carabao Cup final date against Newcastle next month.
Comparing Salah to other greats on the list of best-ever seasons, Manchester United legend Roy Keane explained what Salah’s got that the likes of Thierry Henry, Luis Suarez and Didier Drogba also had.
“They’re all strikers, but we still class Salah as a winger,” he began. “I think if you’re going to be successful at any big club you do need that one world class player.
“You can have brilliant players around you, but whether it’s [Eric] Cantona, [Wayne] Rooney, [Cristiano] Ronaldo, you need that one player who’s almost ahead of everyone else to get you over the line and make the difference in tight games and Salah does that week-in, week-out.”
Jamie Carragher also gave his view, adding: “This is going to end up being the greatest season we’ve ever seen from an individual, I have no doubt about that.
“It’s not whether he finishes above those players numbers, it’s how far, and if he sets the bar so high that in the future nobody can get there again.
“We are seeing something special, this is an all-time season.”
