Ittihad Jeddah president Anmar Al-Haily has revealed they wanted to sign Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah on summer deadline day.
Salah was heavily linked with a move to the Saudi Pro League in the summer transfer window but a deal never materialised in the end.
Despite Ittihad offering a reported fee of £100m for Salah, Liverpool ultimately decided to reject the bid and keep the 31-year-old at Anfield.
Speaking on Salah, Ittihad’s Anmar Al-Haily confirmed the club’s intention to sign the Egyptian and also talked about other major deals that could potentially take place in January.
![Mohamed Salah - Ittihad Jeddah](https://egy24.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/399701934_379152721133694_6080163823726736999_n-e1700419226334-680x547.jpg)
“Ittihad fans have every right to feel upset when they see Al-Nassr signing a player like Laporte and Al-Hilal getting Koulibaly for example,” Al-Haily told Asharq Al-Awsat.
“We have the right to ask for players of the same calibre. But we have a limited budget, unlike the other top three clubs who signed eight players while we only got four.
“We had several transfer requests that were not fulfilled by the league’s vice president Saad Al-Lazeez. Do you expect the recruitment department to offer us Mbappe and we say no?
“Salah deal? We chose to remain silent out of respect, but I want to ask Al-Lazeez, as long as he speaks transparently.
![Mohamed Salah - Ittihad Jeddah](https://egy24.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/F-vdd5dWIAAjFFk-scaled-e1699868827773-680x535.jpg)
“Why did you not clarify what happened in the last week of the transfer market regarding Salah and the negotiations with Liverpool?
“Of course, we wanted to sign Salah. He is a world-class player and was one of our targets in the summer transfer window.
“But we did not get all the players we requested, and I am waiting to find out the reason from the recruitment program.”
“Why didn’t they also clarify what happened regarding Marquinhos, De Bruyne, Gundogan, Ramos and others?” he added.