Mohamed Salah\u2019s relationship with Liverpool is broken. That is abundantly clear after\u00a0the incendiary interview at Elland Road\u00a0on Saturday night that also poses a test of the club\u2019s relationship with Arne Slot. The next revelation will be the extent of internal support for the coach who delivered Liverpool\u2019s record-equaling\u00a020th league title\u00a0eight months ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Salah may have been emotional having been on the bench for the third successive game, but stunning waiting reporters not only by stopping to speak but by dropping a series of grenades during a post-match interview lasting more than seven minutes was not a case of heart ruling head. It never is when one of the greatest players to pull on the red shirt deigns to address the media. Whether it is criticism of contract negotiations, applying a little more pressure to get an agreeable deal done or, in this instance, piling more problems on Slot, Salah\u2019s words are calculated to achieve what he wants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At Leeds, however, he may well have overplayed his hand. This has echoes of Roy Keane\u2019s infamous MUTV interview that led to Manchester United sacking their captain 20 years ago. But Keane\u2019s words were not made public at the time and the full transcript has never appeared.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Egypt international twice accused Liverpool of throwing him under a bus in response to their\u00a0dismal Premier League title defense. Salah made sure that everyone else at Liverpool \u2013 the club\u2019s hierarchy, head coach and even teammates he professed to love \u2013 would be under it with him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Slot went under the bus with Salah\u2019s revelation that there is no longer a relationship between Liverpool\u2019s head coach and star player. An untenable situation. Members of the club\u2019s hierarchy \u2013 specifically the sporting director, Richard Hughes, and Michael Edwards, the chief executive of football at\u00a0Fenway Sports Group\u00a0(FSG) \u2013 were dragged under by Salah\u2019s claim that someone wants him out of the club. Unwittingly or otherwise, the finger immediately points in their direction with Liverpool committed to paying the 33-year-old more than \u00a332m for the remaining 19 months of a contract signed only in April.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Teammates were thrown under too by Salah\u2019s entitled insistence that he has earned the position Slot has taken from him. Only in the past week, mind you. Those teammates include Dominik Szoboszlai, Liverpool\u2019s best performer this season, who started in Salah\u2019s place\u00a0against West Ham, Sunderland and Leeds. Virgil van Dijk may take issue with his colleague too, having said: \u201cIt\u2019s not like you have unlimited credit, everyone has to perform,\u201d when asked about Salah\u2019s demotion in midweek.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Another\u00a0post-Sunderland line\u00a0from the Liverpool captain leaps out after Salah\u2019s interview. \u201cI need him around as one of the leaders,\u201d Van Dijk said on Wednesday. This was not leadership from Salah, it was pure self-indulgence and a betrayal of the dressing room. There is seemingly no end to Liverpool\u2019s problems this season, too many of them self-inflicted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The club wanted to let the dust settle on Sunday and consider their response with cool heads. The response must be emphatic, however, or Slot\u2019s position will be seriously undermined by his own employers. His position has already weakened in the eyes of many supporters after a miserable run of results and performances. Keane was sacked by United after directly lambasting his teammates. Salah did not go that far but he has taken on his manager and openly criticized his decision making.\u00a0Liverpool\u00a0cannot allow that to pass if Slot is to retain authority over the rest of the squad. Banishing the forward from this week\u2019s Champions League trip to Milan to play Inter and the home game against Brighton on Saturday, when Salah floated the possibility of saying goodbye to Anfield \u2013 permanently, or just before heading off to the Africa Cup of Nations, went unsaid \u2013 seems a fair place to start.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It is usually easier, and cheaper, to change an underperforming manager than an underachieving team. But given Salah\u2019s age and marked decline in form this season, that is less of a dilemma for Liverpool. It appears inconceivable that Salah and Slot will both be Liverpool employees by the time the former\u2019s contract expires in the summer of 2027.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The club\u2019s next move will reveal who they are backing. Hughes, Edwards and FSG will be acutely aware of Saudi Arabian interest in Salah and the probability of it ramping up in January. Liverpool were right to reject a \u00a3150m bid from Al-Ittihad for the forward in September 2023. His phenomenal contribution to last season\u2019s title triumph alone justifies that decision. But there must be a greater temptation to cash in now, especially if the proceeds enable Liverpool to strengthen when the transfer window opens next month. Bournemouth\u2019s Antoine Semenyo, signed for the south coast club by Hughes, is understood to have a \u00a365m release clause that can be activated in the first two weeks of January.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Salah\u2019s interview was divisive \u2013 it may have been given with a move to Saudi in mind \u2013 but it has received some support because it chimes with the frustrations surrounding Liverpool\u2019s season. The forward is correct to say he should not be singled out for their failings when so many players are struggling. The club spent almost \u00a3450m on a team that won the Premier League comfortably last season and have gone backwards. Fast.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Hugo Ekitik\u00e9 is the only one of Liverpool\u2019s expensive summer signings to have had a noticeable impact. Slot has spoken of his team\u2019s problems with set pieces, low blocks, costly defensive errors and profligacy all season, and hasn\u2019t rectified any of them. Ao Tanaka\u2019s 96th-minute equaliser for Leeds on Saturday was the 10th goal Liverpool have conceded from a set piece in the league this season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Salah will retain hero status at Liverpool irrespective of the fallout from his interview, although an internal show of support for Slot would confirm the club believe he has gone too far. \u201cSomehow it will end,\u201d he said in Leeds. \u201cBut the thing in my head is why it should end this way?\u201d Because sadly you chose to end it this way, would be one reason.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Mohamed Salah\u2019s relationship with Liverpool is broken. That is abundantly clear after\u00a0the incendiary interview at Elland Road\u00a0on Saturday night that also poses a test of the club\u2019s relationship with Arne Slot. The next revelation will be the extent of internal support for the coach who delivered Liverpool\u2019s record-equaling\u00a020th league title\u00a0eight months ago. Salah may have […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":40722,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,4],"tags":[7,14,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-40721","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"category-sports","9":"tag-apie-project","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-sports"},"yoast_head":"\n