Unai Emery admits he turned down chance to sign Mohamed Salah
Arsenal head coach Unai Emery has revealed he turned down the chance to sign Mohamed Salah for Paris St-Germain as he and the club had doubts about how the Egyptian would perform for a “big team”.
Emery, who was in charge of PSG from June 2016 to May 2018, said the French champions were tracking Salah when he was at Roma and before he joined Liverpool in the summer of 2017.
The club’s scouts had identified the forward as a possible target but PSG opted not to follow through with a move.
Liverpool then signed Salah for an initial fee of £35 million and he went on to score 44 goals in all competitions last season.
Emery, whose Arsenal side face Liverpool on Saturday at Anfield, naturally admits PSG made an error in not pushing through with a move for Salah.
“We spoke about the possibility to sign Salah to Paris St-Germain when he was playing at Roma,” said Emery.
“We had some doubts – and then he signed for Liverpool and these doubts he has broken. Now, if you are speaking about the five top players in the world, one is Salah.”
When pressed on exactly what doubts he had about the Egypt international at the time, Emery said: “How he can take the performance in one big team. For example, like PSG in Paris.
“And today I can say to you, if we sign him, we sign one player in the top five in the world.”
Emery now faces the task of stopping Salah on Saturday as he prepares to take his Arsenal team to Anfield.
After coming under fire for his performances earlier this season, the forward is in fine form and his goal on Boxing Day was his sixth in his past five games.
Salah’s upturn in form has helped Liverpool hit top gear and, since drawing with Arsenal at the Emirates on Nov 3, they have won eight league games in a row. That has enabled them to open up a six-point lead over Tottenham at the top of the table.
Liverpool remain unbeaten in the league and Emery views today’s match as the perfect test of how far Arsenal are from being title contenders.
“They are established with [Jurgen] Klopp in this process. They had the first year when he arrived in the Premier League with some injuries and difficulties,” said Emery. “But when they have passion and time, they are creating and improving like they are now.
“For us it is a good example, but also a good test. How is the difference between them and us? They are very strong in defence and also they are improving a lot when they bought Salah and now offensively they are a very big team.
“I think the Premier League is now the best and most important competition in the world, with Spain, maybe Italy and Germany. But I think here are the best teams and players and now the leader in the table is Liverpool and it is because they are doing things very well.
“It is clear, they are unbeaten and with many great performances as a team and individually with some big confidence, but we need, and we can take, this test.”
