Mohamed Salah emerged from the corridor leading to the London stadium in the middle of a verbal exchange with David Moyes.
As the West Ham United manager put a hand on his shoulder and they said goodbye, Salah flanked a member of Liverpool’s security staff during the short walk to the team bus.
He had to move beyond an organisation keen to intervene in an unseemly sideline argument with their own manager, Jurgen Klopp, as he waited to be brought off to the bench with 11 minutes remaining in Saturday’s 2-2 draw.
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Moments earlier, Klopp had tried to put an end to this in his press conference. “We talked about this in the locker room, but it’s made for me. That’s it. ” Asked if the Egyptian striker saw it that way, Klopp added: “That was my impression, yes. “
So what’s there to see here? Water under the bridge?Obviously, Salah got the memo.
It’s not unusual practice for him to turn down interview requests (he only stopped by after the game to speak to the British print media twice in nearly seven years as a Liverpool player), but it wasn’t the same old smiling reaction, like: “Not today, thank you. “
Without stopping, he said, “There will be a fire if I talk. “
Words spoken objectively.
“Fire?” Athletic asked.
“Of course,” he replied.
After his manager tried to put out the flames, Salah poured gasoline on them.
There is no lack of “fire”. Perhaps he simply took the opportunity to downplay the altercation. Better yet, he may have simply publicly apologised for the disrespect he had shown Klopp. He did neither.
After a dismal few weeks in which Liverpool’s name disintegrated, it’s another sad sight on Klopp’s farewell tour.
As a reminder, Salah was added to the club’s control organisation last summer because he was noticed as a role style for the team’s youngsters. And what happened was not a brief moment of irritation. It lasted more than a minute.
The flashpoint began with Salah upset at being on the bench for so long, seeming reluctant to shake Klopp’s hand while he was ready to come on. Words were exchanged before Klopp discovered fellow substitutes Darwin Nunez and Joe Gomez more willing to hug him.
As the incident continued, Klopp first pulled away and focused his attention on the pitch, before returning to Salah and pulling anything else off his chest.
What followed was completely unacceptable as the mild-mannered Salah expressed his displeasure to his manager, raising his arms and pointing in Klopp’s direction. It took Nunez, the unlikeliest of peacemakers, stepping in to calm his teammate.
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To end a dark few minutes, Michail Antonio nodded in the direction of West Ham before the triple substitution could be made.
At the final whistle, Salah became the first Liverpool player to leave the pitch, briefly giving the outside team a round of applause, before disheveling and disappearing into the tunnel. That is the day when the frustration that was slowly building up inside him exploded. .
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Salah’s durability has been as high as his goalscoring feats since arriving at Anfield from Roma in the summer of 2017. He has missed just 10 league games in his first six seasons at Liverpool.
This season, a lot more playing time has been lost than usual. A hamstring injury at the Africa Cup of Nations on January 18 kept him out of action until the break at Brentford a month later. Then, without delay, he broke down and spent another 3 weeks on the bench and was unavailable for the final Carabao Cup win on February 25.
Since his return to action in early March, he has scored just five goals in thirteen appearances, adding two penalties. During this damaging period, Liverpool were knocked out of the FA Cup and Europa League, and have now fallen. out of the race for the name.
In 3 of the last six games, Salah has been called up on the bench. You only have to look at how he reacted to his substitutions in games to realise how much it hurts to be in the starting eleven.
But the hard truth is, he can’t complain about being overlooked lately.
He didn’t press when he lost possession, his touch failed him several times and, in the final third, he wasted. He looks like a player who lacks pace and confidence.
Defining Salah’s future career is one of the most urgent pieces on new head coach Arne Slot’s list of candidates as he prepares to succeed Klopp this summer.
It’s a real dilemma. We are talking about one of the most important players in the club’s history; a striker who ranks fifth on Liverpool’s all-time scoring list with 210 goals in 346 games and remains their top scorer this season with 24 goals in all competitions. He is the first Liverpool player to score more than 20 goals in all competitions in seven consecutive seasons.
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It would be ill-timed to describe his slump as evidence that he’s a declining force, but, with either turning 32 and entering the final year of his contract this offseason, it would be a big gamble to offer some other lucrative extension to someone who’s making money. More than £350,000 ($437,145) per week.
Last August, Liverpool rejected a £100 million offer, potentially up to £150 million with additions, for Salah from Saudi Arabia’s Pro League’s Al Ittihad, largely because they didn’t have enough time to find a suitable replacement. If the deals were made well before this summer, they would actually be tempted to cash in, given their self-sustaining business model.
GO FURTHER
Salah’s big monetary resolution is inevitable, but relations between Saudi Arabia and Egypt are complicated
A lot of will about Salah himself.
Are you in a position to say goodbye to elite football in Europe and head to Saudi Arabia?There’s a school of thought that thinks he’d sit out for the final year of his contract and then leave as a free agent in 2025, when it’s possible he’ll just ask for a huge signing fee.
Perhaps a genuine breakup in the next few months and then a fresh start, under Slot’s direction, will get him fired again.
But Salah will have to reflect on what happened at the London stadium, because he was disappointed. If he had anything to say, it deserved to have happened behind closed doors.
Klopp turned Salah into an icon at Anfield; Their outgoing coach deserved more than that.
GO FURTHER
How does Arne Slot play? Can he perform at Liverpool?
Liverpool fixtures: Tottenham (m) on 5 May; Aston Villa (a) on 13 May; Lobos (m) on May 19.
(Top photo: Andrew Powell/Liverpool FC Getty Images)