• José Mourinho’s side gazumped Liverpool for Egyptian
• ‘It is difficult to take but you’ve got to look forward’

Brendan Rodgers has said Chelsea’s capture of Mohamed Salah was “difficult to take” and he will be disappointed should Liverpool fail to strengthen their Champions League-chasing squad before the transfer deadline.

The Anfield club have not added to their ranks in the January window and lost out on their main transfer target when Chelsea gazumped an offer for the Basel winger Salah. The Egypt international joined José Mourinho’s side for an initial £12m, with Liverpool, who had held extensive talks over the 21-year-old, refusing to increase their valuation of the player. Willian also joined Chelsea this season after Liverpool had moved first for the Brazilian forward.

Rodgers has kept Liverpool in Champions League contention all season but stressed a need for reinforcements plus concern at the impact of injury on qualification hopes before the transfer window opened. Those fears are being realised with Lucas Leiva, Glen Johnson, Daniel Agger, Mamadou Sakho and José Enrique all ruled out of the Merseyside derby against Everton on Tuesday and Joe Allen a major doubt.

The Liverpool manager is part of a transfer committee that the owners, Fenway Sports Group, installed at Anfield and said on Salah: “The club did everything they felt they possibly could to get a deal but it wasn’t to be.” Asked how Liverpool decided on their valuation of the winger, Rodgers replied: “That’s for the money guys to say that. It’s the construction of the whole deal, not only with the player and the agent but also Basel as a football club. It was deemed in this case that we couldn’t do a deal and Chelsea could. So the boy has gone there.”

He added: “That’s something that is out of my control. We can identify the players that we want to bring in and we hope we can get them in. If we can the club will do everything possible to match the value of the player. If they end up going to another club that is difficult to take. But you can’t worry about it, you’ve just got to keep looking forward.”

Rodgers’ explanation partly contradicted that offered by Ian Ayre, the managing director, as to why Liverpool missed out on the Egyptian. Speaking earlier at the launch of a two-year commercial deal with airline Garuda Indonesia, who will sponsor Liverpool’s training kit and remain the club’s official airline partner for £16m per year, Ayre said: “We haven’t been held back from concluding a deal, it would be wrong to say that. The player decided he didn’t want to come to Liverpool.

“We know what the value of the player is and how far we were prepared to go. That is something myself, Brendan and the others involved in the process discuss openly. We won’t overpay. In every transfer window you win some and lose some.”

Rodgers claimed “there’s certainly nothing imminent” ahead of Friday’s deadline and will reserve judgment on Liverpool’s transfer business until after the window. “We will see where we are at when the window shuts,” he said. “Of course I wanted to strengthen the team that was already here. If we are unable to do that it would be disappointing, but there’s nothing you can do about it. If we don’t get them in then as a coach I’ll work with what I’ve got. I am very optimistic and will rinse everything out of the players we have.

“The owners feel like that as well [that Liverpool need to strengthen]. They feel like that and the people in the club see where we are at. We’ve shown up until now that we can really challenge at the top end of the table. We’ve wanted to bring in players who could help us and players of quality. Let’s hope we can do that between now and the end of the window.”

• Brendan Rodgers
• Liverpool
• Chelsea
• Transfer window

Andy Hunter

theguardian.com