It has been in danger of becoming lost in the vast pool of punditry past, the seemingly endless deep in which predictions and pontifications regularly sink without trace.
But even Jamie Carragher couldn’t have imagined just how right he would be about Mohamed Salah.
“He’s a wide man who looks obsessed with scoring goals in terms of making that run to put himself through,” said the Liverpool great.
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“And the big thing about wide players, if you want to be successful you’ve got to be getting double figures. Certainly at a top club.
“People may work him out if he plays so narrow, then there’s no space to run.
“But there’s no doubt with him and Sadio Mane on the other side, not classic wingers getting down the line and getting crosses in, those two players will score goals.”
Carragher was speaking after Salah had netted his first Premier League goal for the Reds, bundling home at the far post from Roberto Firmino’s lob as Jurgen Klop’s side registered a 3-3 draw at Watford in August 2017.
Barely four years later, there have been a further 99 in the top flight alone as the Egyptian continues to rack up the records and landmarks almost as regularly as finding the back of the net.
It’s worth recalling that remarkable debut season that remains a high mark not just in Salah’s career, but in Premier League history.
He’d scored 21 goals by Christmas, the first player to do so for Liverpool since club record goalscorer Ian Rush in 31 years earlier.
By the end, Salah’s tally of 44 goals in 52 games was the second-highest tally achieved by a Reds player in history, surpassed only by Rush’s 47 in 1983/84 – which was achieved in 13 more appearances.
That campaign brought a glut of records along with the Premier League Golden Boot, PFA Player of the Year and Footballer of the Year awards.
Salah’s 32 league goals were the most anyone had scored in a 38-game Premier League season. He scored in a record 24 different Premier League matches, notched a league-high 25 goals with his left and became the first player to outscore three entire teams.
But what has made Salah truly great is that he simply hasn’t stopped.
Sure, it would have been impossible for anyone to match that first season. However, his tally of 22 the following year was enough for a share of the Golden Boot, while he finished only four adrift of 2019/20 winner Jamie Vardy and one strike behind last season’s leading scorer Harry Kane.
And by netting his 100th league goal in his 151st Premier League appearance for Liverpool in the 3-3 draw at Brentford in September, Salah surpassed Roger Hunt in becoming the quickest Reds player to reach a top-flight century of strikes.
His outrageous effort the following weekend against Manchester City underlined this is a player at the very top of his game.
Salah, though, hasn’t limited himself to Premier League goals.
With 29 goals in 48 Champions League games, he is only one behind Steven Gerrard’s club record total.
Salah, with 134, is already in the top 10 of Liverpool’s all-time goalscorers and could nudge into the top eight by the end of the season with Harry Chambers and Michael Owen in his sights.
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And it would be foolish to back against the Egyptian given the manner in which he has started this 2021/22 season, reinvigorated by the return of supporters to stadiums despite his 31 goals in the previous campaign making him one of few Liverpool players to maintain their form during a hugely problematic title defence.
What makes this all the more remarkable is Salah isn’t doing it from the position of a tradition centre forward.
Sure, occasionally he will be played down the middle by Klopp. And tactical switches mid-game can see him moved into the more immediately threatening position.
But, as Carragher highlighted one competitive game into Salah’s career, the forward is best suited for coming in off the flank, the way Liverpool set up ensuring maximum possibility for maximum return from the Egyptian.
And it isn’t just his goals. Salah can also boast 46 assists, meaning he has had an astonishing 190 goal involvements in 212 appearances.
Where exactly Salah ranks in the Liverpool all-time greats is difficult to ascertain.
Already he must be regarded as a Reds great of the Premier League era, given his starring role in their title success of 2019/20 and, of course, his goal that set Liverpool on their way to a sixth European Cup triumph in Madrid two years ago.
Salah can stake a claim to being Liverpool’s finest goalscoring import, while pressing Michael Owen and Robbie Fowler for the overall accolade in the last three decades.
And should he extend his Anfield stay beyond his current contract, there’s every chance his name will be mentioned in the same reverential tones reserved for Rush, Kenny Dalglish, Steven Gerrard, Billy Liddell and such Reds legends.
For now, though, Salah will crack on with what he’s best at – scoring goals, creating goals and winning games.
Mohamed Salah, the one-season wonder still doing it into a fifth season at Anfield. Mohamed Salah, the wide man obsessed with scoring goals. Mohamed Salah, the Liverpool legend in the making.
