Mohamed Salah is currently in action for Egypt at the Africa Cup of Nations – but the Liverpool star has been linked with a big-money transfer move to Saudi Arabia
Mohamed Salah during Egypt's Africa Cup of Nations match against Angola
Mohamed Salah's future at Liverpool remains in doubt(Image: (FRANCK FIFE / AFP via Getty Images))
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Mohamed Salah has been told to stay at Liverpool and secure the Anfield send-off he deserves. The forward's Anfield future was left in doubt after he 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 out of the Liverpool squad for the Champions League win over Inter Milan before being restored 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, he also apologised to his team-mates.
Speaking in the days that followed the interview at Elland Road, 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 a summer departure. Now, former Reds midfielder David Thompson has echoed 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.
“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.”
Arne Slot and Mohamed Salah
Mohamed Salah gave a bombshell interview about his relationship with Liverpool boss Arne Slot at the start of December
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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. “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.”
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