It's been exactly five years since Liverpool signed Mohamed Salah for an initial £36.5 million.It will go down as one of the club's best signings in their history.In the five seasons he's been at Anfield, Salah has scored 156 goals, won six trophies and established himself as one of the best players in world football.But it's easy to forget there were raised eyebrows when Liverpool splashed the cash to bring Salah back to England.After all, he had spent a couple of years at Chelsea earlier in his career but struggled to force his way into Jose Mourinho’s plans. He played just 19 times at Stamford Bridge before being sold to Roma, following a loan spell at I Giallorossi and Fiorentina.Impressive performances in Italy did get his career back on track but he certainly wasn't guaranteed to be a hit upon his return to the Premier League.In fact, a report in The Times just months after he arrived suggests Salah was actually Liverpool’s FOURTH choice winger in the summer of 2017. Liverpool had originally tried to sign him before he decided to move to Chelsea in 2013 and the club had looked at plenty of alternatives in that time.

Salah was Liverpool's fourth choice winger

The Times wrote: “Liverpool scouted about 15 wide players between missing out on Salah and signing him. Klopp has conceded that it was Dave Fallows, head of scouting and recruitment, Barry Hunter, the chief scout, and Michael Edwards, the sporting director, whose background checks extended to spying missions at training camps as well as matches, who constantly pushed his case.

“[He joined] only after Liverpool had looked at other targets. Borussia Dortmund refused to let Christian Pulisic leave, Julian Draxler was pursued last January, opting to move instead to Paris Saint-Germain from Wolfsburg, and Julian Brandt chose to stay at Bayer Leverkusen fearing that he would not play regularly at Anfield.”

Everyone associated with Liverpool will be delighted the club were unable to land the aforementioned trio of targets before returning to Salah.

While we know what Salah has been doing in the last five years, what of Pulisic, Draxler and Brandt?

Let's take a look at how those careers have panned out:

Christian Pulisic

Pulisic remained at Dortmund in 2017 and the American scored 12 goals in 72 appearances in the following two seasons for the German club.

That was enough for Chelsea to sign him for £58 million.

Since his move to Stamford Bridge, the American has played a bit-part role, scoring 25 goals in 115 appearances in all competitions. He only played 22 of Chelsea's 38 Premier League games in 2021/22.

Still only 23, Pulisic has plenty of time to fulfil the incredible potential he showed that interested Liverpool in the first place but he's currently a long way off Salah's level.

Julian Draxler

Draxler is still at Paris Saint-Germain but isn’t producing numbers anywhere near Salah. In fact, since his arrival at the Parc des Princes, he’s scored just 26 in 198 matches.

At 28, the German may need to leave PSG for more regular first-team football.

Julian Brandt

Brandt feared he wouldn’t play regularly at Liverpool and stayed at Bayer Leverkusen for two more seasons, scoring a further 22 goals.

That earned him a move to Borussia Dortmund in 2019.

But he hasn't become the worldwide star Dortmund would have hoped, scoring just 20 times in 127 matches for the German club. He certainly can't be compared to Salah.