Former Liverpool midfielder Danny Murphy says he is certain that the Reds are already “planning” for Mohamed Salah’s departure from Anfield.

The Egyptian international conducted an interview with a Spanish newspaper last week where he left the door open to a move to either Real Madrid or Barcelona, and Murphy believes there are only two players who could replace the forward; Borussia Dortmund’s Jadon Sancho and Paris Saint-Germain’s Kylian Mbappe:

“I don’t think at the moment there’s too many out there who you’d put above Salah in terms of numbers and ability to win matches and score goals. Yeah if you’re going to break the bank then maybe a Sancho or even Mbappe they could try and go for, whether they can afford him or not I don’t know.

“But I think Liverpool will be planning, they’ve done tremendously well in the recruitment area for a long time now.  With the rumours, with the ages of the players, it would be remiss of the club not to be looking at what they could bring in to push and maybe take the place of the players you’re talking about.”

Neither Mbappe nor Sancho would be cheap. The latter is thought to have a €120m (£106.5m) asking price and has been linked with Chelsea and Manchester United, in addition to Liverpool.

Mbappe’s situation is slightly different. The Frenchman has 18 months left on his contract and PSG may be forced into selling him unless he puts pen to paper on a new deal soon. Even so, a move to Spain is thought to be more likely than a switch the Premier League.