Mohamed Salah is currently playing for Egypt at the Africa Cup of Nations – but the Liverpool forward has been linked with a move to the Saudi Pro League
Liverpool and Egypt forward Mohamed Salah
Liverpool and Egypt forward Mohamed Salah(Image: (Ulrik Pedersen/NurPhoto via Getty Images))
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Mohamed Salah has been urged to shelve any immediate thoughts about quitting Liverpool and secure a fitting Anfield send-off. Salah accused Liverpool of “throwing him under the bus” and said his relationship with the club’s head coach, Arne Slot, was over in an incendiary interview following his side’s 3-3 draw with Leeds United last month.
Salah was left at home for the Champions League win over Inter Milan before being restored to Liverpool’s squad for the 2-0 victory over Brighton & Hove Albion after face-to-face talks with Slot. Before leaving for Egypt’s Africa Cup of Nations campaign, the forward also apologised to his team-mates.
Speaking just days after the interview at Elland Road, Kop icon Jamie Carragher pleaded with Salah to remain a Liverpool player until the end of the season to ensure he gets the send-off he deserves before he departs, as he expects, in the summer.
And now former Reds midfielder David Thompson has agreed with Carragher's thoughts, saying: “The situation with Slot is a weird one, nobody saw it coming, and at 33 you should accept having a little rest on the bench.
“I hope he hasn’t played his last game for Liverpool, but in all honesty, if the Saudis do come up with an offer, I can see there's value in Mo Salah now, and particularly in this transfer window, you can see Liverpool taking a massive fee for him.
“What he's done for Liverpool Football Club, he deserves a proper send-off where the fans can say goodbye to him, and he can say goodbye to the fans, because he's been a real inspiration.
“When he came out last season to say the club hadn't offered him a contract, bear in mind the season he was having and his importance in the team, it was inevitable that the club was going to give him the contract.
“It's been a change of system, a change of style, a change of personnel, and they defend differently from the front now. They don't create that chaos, and that chaos is where Mo Salah used to thrive.
Mohamed Salah enters the field of play
Mohamed Salah was brought on as a substitute during Liverpool's clash with Brighton
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“His performances have not been good enough, and teams have started to exploit that side of the pitch by doubling up and overloading.
“In terms of value and what he brought and the standards, he is a standard-bearer for Liverpool Football Club, and his levels are so high. Everybody else has been hanging on his coattails just to try to get to that level. So he's dragged everybody up along with him.”
Clubs in the Saudi Pro League are interested in signing Salah, and Sam Allardyce believes Liverpool will cash in on the forward if they receive the right offer this month.
“Make no mistake, Liverpool will sell him if a Saudi club comes in for him with a good offer,” he said on the Footy Accumulators No Tippy Tappy Football podcast.
“There's no loyalty either way in football, whether it’s players or when the football club wants to get rid of them.
“They've done it before. How much did they make off Jordan Henderson? Normally, he would have seen his contract out and gone for free, but they got nearly 20 million for him.
“You get an offer, and you look at the age of the player, and the club's going to go right off you go.”