We all know that Liverpool wanted Mohamed Salah this January and that Chelsea signing the young Egyptian annoyed our friends in Merseyside rather considerably. But what we didn't know is that it also had an impact on events in Newcastle, where Joe Kinnear was allegedly claiming to be about to buy the winger from Basel even after we'd acquired him:
[Kinnear] privately claimed Newcastle were going to sign Mohamad Salah last month for £25 million AFTER a deal had been struck with Chelsea for less than half that figure.
-Source: Independent.
That's just one bullet point on a long list of Kinnear's misstes this season, a catastro[fun] of such proportions that he was canned from his job as Newcastle's director of football earlier this week. If anyone ever tells you that people in the game know more than everyone outside it, Kinnear's a pretty good counterpoint.
Meanwhile, our director of football actually did buy Salah, so well done to Mr. Emenalo.