Talks ongoing: Liverpool want their next Sadio Mane x Mo Salah

Sadio Mane and Mohamed Salah are the greatest wing-pairing in Liverpool's history. Now the Reds want to do it all over again.

We’ve never seen anything at Liverpool like Sadio Mane and Mohamed Salah. Though, just to make it clear from the start: it did depend on Roberto Firmino being an other-worldly talent who could knit it all together.

Still, the attacking exploits and threat offered by Mane and Salah were sensational and stopping them relied almost entirely on luck. It was something special and, if Liverpool have their way, something we genuinely might see again.

There’s no question that Liverpool’s future on the wing is Rio Ngumoha. He’s an electric dribbler already and at just 17. The sky is the limit if he can add the kind of final product Mane and Salah boasted.

But Ngumoha certainly can’t replicate the duo on his own and that’s why Liverpool are looking for something similar on the right-hand side. They’ve reportedly entered talks to sign Ibrahim Mbaye from Paris Saint-Germain - essentially a second Ngumoha.

Two out-and-out wingers were born as late as 2008 and played at least 500 minutes across Europe’s top five leagues last season. One was Ngumoha, the other Mbaye.

Liverpool quite plainly see a development path with the pair of them, given the unique chemistry of two wingers of a relatively similar profile who play on opposite flanks. This isn’t common and essentially comes down to good fortune that there’s a player the same age as Ngumoha, who can play in the same team, who boasts similar talent and happens to be available.

If things indeed go to plan, there’s no reason why this pairing couldn’t end up as dominant as Mane and Salah. One of them also happens to be the great hope of Senegalese football, if you’d like an extra omen. You can even go a little further and point out that the other winger was once at Chelsea.

The dream is that the pair can go on to become elite talents together and having learned to play in the same team. That would give Liverpool something no team in world football could boast - the best pairing on the planet.

The Reds have been there before, of course. A deal for Mbaye could see it happen all over again.