His subsequent performances have forced a reassessment of that opinion and reinforced why Liverpool were prepared to
pay Roma a fee that could rise to £43.9m less than a year after he had been sold by Chelsea to the Italian club for a fraction of
the price.
But what were the factors that they would have considered? Why were they so sure that things would be different for Salah
second time around in the Premier League?
Phil Thompson admits he had his doubts about Salah but has been thrilled For Rob Mackenzie, formerly the head of technical scouting at Leicester City and the
head of player identification at Tottenham, this is a story of a club betting on a player's motivation and mental strength as well as
his physical and technical attributes.
In fact, as Mackenzie points out, it is the lessons learnt by Everton's new manager Sam Allardyce that help to explain why Liverpool could be confident Salah would
succeed…