Mohamed Salah’s explosive fallout with Arne Slot has been the major headline across the footballing world this week with plenty having their say
Everything that’s been said about Mohamed Salah’s fallout with Arne Slot at Liverpool
- Mohamed Salah: “I am top goalscorer, best player, winning the league in such a style, but I am the one who has to defend himself in front of the media and fans. After what I have done for the club it really hurts. You can imagine, really. After going from home to the club and you don’t know if you are starting. I know the club too well, I have been here many years. Tomorrow Carragher is going to go for me again and again and that’s fine. [I couldn’t believe] that I’m sitting on the bench for 90 minutes! The third time on the bench, I think for the first time in my career. I’m very, very disappointed to be fair. I have done so much for this club down the years and especially last season. Now I’m sitting on the bench and I don’t know why. It seems like the club has thrown me under the bus. That is how I am feeling. I think it is very clear that someone wanted me to get all of the blame. I got a lot of promises in the summer and so far I am in the bench for three games so I can’t say they keep the promise. I said many times before that I had a good relationship with the manager and all of a sudden, we don’t have any relationship. I don’t know why, but it seems to me, how I see it, that someone doesn’t want me in the club.”
- Arne Slot: “That’s not the way I feel but he has the right to feel how he feels things. I haven’t felt that at all until Saturday evening, for sure. When I didn’t play him anymore, usually players don’t like the manager that much, but he was very respectful to the staff members and to his team-mates and he trained really hard so it was a bit of a surprise when I heard he made those comments.”
- Virgil van Dijk: “Obviously it’s difficult but its a collective difficult situation we’re all in. Obviously between Mo and the club things are going on and the consequences means he is not here today. That is the reality but nothing changes for our motivation to get results for the club. An apology? I don’t think I am the one who has to speak about if someone has to apologise. It’s him airing his feelings, and that is something the club has to deal with and me as well. Nothing has really changed, we’ve have our responsibility. So the focus was there. Nothing has changed and he trained as well by the way. The reality is Mo is also going to Africa at the weekend, I have known Mo for such a long time, been through a lot, highs and lows, we’re a big part of this at LFC, so we speak and those types of things will stay indoors as they should. And we as a team of players we raise ourselves and be against the outside noise and I encourage the players to listen.”
- Jamie Carragher: “I thought it was a disgrace what he did after the game. Some people have painted it as an emotional outburst, I don’t think it was. Whenever Mo Salah stops in a mixed zone, which he’s done four times in eight years at Liverpool, it’s choreographed with him and his agent to cause maximum damage and strengthen his own position. He’s chosen this weekend to do this now and he’s waited, I think, for a bad result for Liverpool. You can see the last-minute goal, Liverpool supporters, the manager, everyone involved in the club feels like they’re in the gutter at the moment and he’s chosen that time to go for the manager and maybe try and get him sacked.”
- Andy Robertson: “A tough situation obviously. We are talking about, for me, one of the greatest players to ever play for the club. Whatever happens happens internally now and we are all together and that’s the main thing in the changing room and I think you can see that today. (Will it be resolved?) That will be up to other people, it’s not up to me. I love playing with Mo Salah and hope to continue to play with him.”
- Wayne Rooney: “He is absolutely destroying his legacy at Liverpool. It would be sad for him to throw it all away. He’s gone about it all wrong. Time catches up with all of us, and this season he hasn’t looked at his best, at his sharpest. If I was one of his team-mates, I wouldn’t be happy at all with what he said because this is where Liverpool need him most. If anything, he has thrown Liverpool under the bus with his words. He’s been absolutely incredible for Liverpool, but this was disrespectful to his team-mates, manager and fans. I would imagine he will be very quiet around the training ground and that will bring a negative energy in itself to the new players Arne has bedded in.”
- Glen Johnson: “It’s just strange. We’ve had bust-ups over the years but to have an outburst like that, it is the final straw, not the start of it. You can have a bust-up in training, after training, or in the manager’s office. That’s all fine and all well and good, but when you do it this way, it’s not for the best of the team. Sometimes you are frustrated and you have outbursts where you say stuff that you don’t mean. But it still doesn’t help. I was just as shocked as you and I hope they can resolve it — but the clock is ticking, as we know. I don’t know if he’s played his last game for Liverpool. It would be a shame for him to end his Liverpool career in this way, so I think the club will do everything it can to resolve it. But at the same time, Mo is not Liverpool Football Club. You have got other players who are trying to perform every week who are working hard, so it’s not the be-all and end-all. Players come and go, and he is not bigger than the club. If he thinks that was his last game, and he doesn’t want to play, cool. Stop talking about him, let him move, and crack on. There is so much more to talk about and work on. But I do think the club will try and work with him to resolve it. He will want to do the same when he simmers down, and hopefully he can see the season out to the end and leave on better terms.”
- Michael Owen (via social media): “Oh @mosalah I can imagine how you feel. You’ve carried this team for a long time and won everything there is to win. But this is a team game and you simply can’t publicly say what you’ve said. You’re going to AFCON in a week. Surely you bite your lip, enjoy representing your country and see how the land lies when you get back?”
- Thierry Henry: “You need to protect your team at all costs, all the time. I can understand you want to speak. I can understand the frustration. I don’t [understand] the how and the when. That doesn’t make sense to me. That was wrong and when people talk about relationships, the only relationship a coach wants to have with a player is for him to perform. If you’re not performing, then your position is in danger. It’s not [your] due to have a position, especially at a club like Liverpool…It has nothing to do, again, with what he has achieved. I repeat – I love Mo Salah. I love what he has done in the game. That’s a different topic. There, that’s not how you go about stuff.”
- Ryan Gravenberch: “I think everyone is dealing with it in their own way. Everyone has an opinion on it. I have my own opinion, but I’d rather keep it for myself. I respect Mo, I respect Liverpool. It’s all about the match today and we are happy with the three points…I don’t know what will happen, but obviously myself I have a really good relationship with Mo. I hope I can continue with him because he is a really good player. You saw that last season as well.”
- READ MORE ABOUT THE INTERNAL FEUD BETWEEN SLOT AND SALAH HERE: Mo Salah drops new cryptic response after Arne Slot shuts down explosive interview
