Former Manchester United defender Rio Ferdinand has opened up on Sadio Mane’s departure from Liverpool.
Speaking on his podcast, the former England international defender explained that Liverpool made a mistake when they decided to let Sadio Mane leave the club and join Bayern Munich at the start of the season.
Mane was one of the best players last season and the Reds have certainly missed someone like him this season.
Ferdinand believes that the Reds should have cashed in on the Brazilian international striker Roberto Firmino instead.
“Why didn’t they just pay him the money to stay?” he said on the FIVE Podcast.
“I think they let the wrong one go, they should’ve let Firmino go, I just don’t understand how you let someone who is world-class at that moment in time, ideally who would’ve liked to have stayed if you gave the contract he was looking for or something similar to what Salah got.
“I just can’t get my head around it, every Liverpool fan must be sat there thinking ‘wow, how have we let this slip through our hands, a player of that calibre?'”.
It has been a difficult season for Liverpool so far and they are 9th in the Premier League table.
Champions League qualification seems quite difficult for Jurgen Klopp’s side and it remains to be seen whether they can turn things around during the second half of the campaign and finish in the top four.
Liverpool’s decline has coincided with the departure of Mane and that has certainly fuelled debates that the Senegal international’s departure has weakened the side considerably.
There is no doubt that any club in the world would miss a player like Mane but the Reds have had persistent injury problems this season. Key players like Luis Diaz and Diogo Jota have been sidelined for the majority of the season so far and that has hurt Liverpool more than the departure of their former attacker.
Summer signing Darwin Nunez is still getting to grips with life in the Premier League and he has done reasonably well despite not managing to hit the ground running.
Manager Jurgen Klopp is under a lot of pressure right now and he will be expected to get his side firing on all cylinders again. Missing out on Champions League football could be catastrophic to the club’s finances and it remains to be seen how the situation develops.
More must-reads: