Liverpool coach Brendan Rodgers regrets his club’s failure to sign Egyptian winger Mohamed Salah, saying that Chelsea's capture of the Pharaohs player was "difficult to take.”

Salah had been a target of Premier League giants Liverpool since the opening of the winter transfer window. The player was close to joining the Reds, but Chelsea instead won the race for the 21-year-old. 

Salah completed his move from Basel to Chelsea on a five-and-a-half-year contract on Sunday.

The transfer fee is believed to be in the region of €13m, according to the UEFA official website.

"The club did everything they felt they possibly could to get a deal but it wasn't to be," Rodgers was quoted as saying by the Guardian late on Monday.

"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.”

"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," the Reds boss concluded.

Salah played a key role in helping Basel win a fourth consecutive league title last season. He also steered them to a place in the Europa League semis.

The former Arab Contractors prodigy was also voted as the “most popular player” by Swiss fans and also the 2013 best player in Switzerland. He was named as the Swiss league’s best player for the 2012-13 season last month.

Salah has scored 20 goals in 79 appearances with Basel in all competitions since departing Egypt’s Contractors in the summer of 2012.

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