‘What I Need’—Arne Slot Reveals Next Steps in Mohamed Salah Saga
Liverpool manager Arne Slot has confirmed he does not want Mohamed Salah to leave the club, but he is yet to make a decision over the Egyptian’s involvement against Brighton & Hove Albion on Saturday.
Salah’s stunning outburst after a third successive game on the bench, which saw him claim he was being made a scapegoat and was perhaps being pushed out of Anfield, unsurprisingly saw him dropped from the squad that beat Inter 1–0 in the Champions League in midweek.
Saturday’s visit from Brighton is the final game before Salah will depart for the Africa Cup of Nations, which runs into the January transfer window. Amid significant speculation he could leave the club this winter, it is feasible to suggest Salah may have already played his final game for Liverpool if he is not reinstated to Slot’s squad this weekend.
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Asked whether Salah would make his return against Brighton, Slot told his pre-match press conference: “I will have a conversation with Mo this morning and the outcome determines how things will look tomorrow.
“What I need is a conversation with him and the next time I speak about Mo should be with him and not in here. There’s not much more to say about it. I will speak to him today and the outcome of that conversation determines how things will look tomorrow.”
Slot revealed there had been plenty of talks about the situation behind the scenes as he deflected a question on whether his defensive demands were at the heart of Salah’s issue.
“I just said the next time I speak about him should be with him,” the Reds boss continued. “I think there’s been a lot of conversations between his representatives and ours, our representatives and him, between him and me after the Sunderland game.”
Slot: I Don’t Want Salah to Leave
While Slot admitted to speaking with those in charge about Salah’s immediate role in the team, he insisted he made the final call to drop the Egypt international and will also be responsible for the decision on his role against Brighton.
“I think we decided as a club, and I was part of that decision, not to take him to the Inter Milan game,” he continued. “I am always in contact with them, but when it comes to the decision-making of the lineup or the squad, they always leave that open to me, but that’s not to say I don’t talk to them. Mainly Richard [Hughes, sporting director], by the way, not Michael [Edwards, chief executive].
“I talk to him about so many things, but the decision to play a player or to have him in the squad, as I’ve experienced it to now—and I think this will never change—is entirely up to me.”
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Further questions about Salah were met with a similar response from a jovial Slot, who laughed at continued attempts to draw more information out of him. The Reds boss was, however, willing to reveal his wish to continue working with the winger.
“The next time I talk about Mo should be with him,” he insisted. “I have no reasons not to want him to stay, if that’s a bit of an answer.”
A question on the stance of Slot’s relationship with Salah was branded “useless” by the up-beat boss, who continued to giggle at a final suggestion that Liverpool’s run of unbeaten games without Salah in the starting lineup may have justified his decision.
“This club has won a lot, a lot, a lot of games with him, so that’s an answer to your question I think,” Slot concluded.
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