Mohamed Salah emerged from the corridor leading out of the London Stadium deep in conversation with David Moyes.
As the West Ham United manager put a hand on his shoulder and they said their goodbyes, Salah was flanked by a member of Liverpool’s security staff for the short walk to the team bus.
It took him past a group of reporters eager to get his thoughts on an unseemly touchline spat with his own manager, Jurgen Klopp, as he waited to be introduced off the bench with 11 minutes to go in Saturday’s 2-2 draw.
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Moments earlier, Klopp had sought to draw a line under it during his press conference. “We spoke about it in the dressing room, but it’s done for me. That’s it.” Asked whether the Egypt forward saw things that way, Klopp added: “It was my impression, yes.”
So, nothing to see here? All water under the bridge? Salah clearly did not get the memo.
It is standard practice for him to turn down interview requests — he has only stopped post-match to speak to the UK’s written press twice in nearly seven years as a Liverpool player — but this was not the usual smiling response of, “Not today, thank you”.
Not breaking stride, he said: “There’s going to be fire today if I speak.”
The words were uttered matter of factly.
“Fire?” The Athletic inquired.
“Of course,” he replied.
After his manager had sought to douse the flames, Salah poured petrol on them.
There did not need to be “fire”. He could have taken the opportunity to play down the altercation. Even better, he could have apologised publicly for the disrespect he had shown Klopp. He did neither.
After a wretched few weeks which have seen Liverpool’s title challenge disintegrate, it was another sad sight on Klopp’s farewell tour.
For context, Salah was added to the club’s leadership group last summer because he was regarded as such a role model for the youngsters in the squad. And what happened yesterday was not a brief moment of petulance. It spanned over a minute.
The flashpoint started with Salah, annoyed that he had remained on the bench for so long, seeming reluctant to shake Klopp’s hand as he prepared to come on. Words were exchanged before Klopp found fellow substitutes Darwin Nunez and Joe Gomez more willing to embrace him.
As the incident continued, Klopp initially stepped away from it and focused his attention on the field, before walking back towards Salah and getting something else off his chest.
What followed was completely unacceptable as Salah, usually so mild-mannered, vented his spleen towards his manager, throwing his arms up and pointing in Klopp’s direction. It took Nunez, the most unlikely of peacemakers, to step in to calm his team-mate down.
A heated exchange between Mohamed Salah and Jürgen Klopp on the sidelines just before West Ham’s equaliser 😳
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— Football on TNT Sports (@footballontnt) April 27, 2024
Just to complete a bleak few minutes, Michail Antonio nodded West Ham level before the triple substitution could be made.
At the final whistle, Salah was the first Liverpool player to leave the pitch, briefly aiming some applause towards the away end, before ruffling his hair and disappearing down the tunnel. This was the day when the frustration that has been gradually building inside him erupted.
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Salah’s durability has been as remarkable as his goal-scoring feats since arriving at Anfield from Roma in the summer of 2017. He missed just 10 league matches across his first six seasons at Liverpool.
This season, he has missed much more game-time than usual. Damaging a hamstring at the Africa Cup of Nations on January 18 kept him out until the trip to Brentford a month later. Then he immediately broke down again and spent another three weeks on the sidelines and was not available for the Carabao Cup final win on February 25.
Since returning to action in early March, he has scored just five goals in 13 appearances, and two of those were penalties. During that damaging period, Liverpool have been knocked out of the FA Cup and the Europa League, and have now dropped out of the title race.
In three of the past six matches, Salah has been named on the bench. You only have to look at how he has reacted to being substituted in games to appreciate how much not making the starting XI hurts.
But the harsh reality is that he can have no complaints about being overlooked of late.
He has not pressed like he should out of possession, his touch has repeatedly let him down and, in the final third, he has been wasteful. He has looked like a player lacking rhythm and confidence.
Sorting out Salah’s future is one of the most pressing items in prospective new head coach Arne Slot’s in-tray as he prepares to take over from Klopp this summer.
It is a genuine dilemma. We are talking about one of the greatest players in the club’s history; a forward who is fifth on Liverpool’s all-time list of scorers with 210 goals in 346 matches and is still their top scorer this season with 24 goals in all competitions. He became the first Liverpool player to score more than 20 goals in all competitions in seven successive seasons.
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It would be premature to describe his slump as proof that he is a declining force but, as he both turns 32 and enters the final year of his deal this off-season, it would be a sizeable gamble to offer another lucrative extension to someone earning over £350,000 ($437,145) per week.
Last August, Liverpool turned down an offer of £100million, potentially rising to £150m with add-ons, for Salah from Saudi Pro League outfit Al Ittihad, largely because they did not have enough time to find a suitable replacement. If a similar offer is forthcoming much earlier in this summer’s window, they would surely be tempted to cash in, given their self-sustaining business model.
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Much will depend on Salah himself.
Is he ready to wave goodbye to elite football in Europe and head for Saudi? There is a school of thought that he would rather sit tight for the final year of his contract and then depart as a free agent in 2025, when he could command a huge signing-on fee.
Maybe a proper break in the months ahead and then a new start, seemingly under Slot, will get him firing again.
But Salah needs to reflect on what happened at the London Stadium yesterday, because he let himself down. If he had something to get off his chest, it should have happened behind closed doors.
Klopp has elevated Salah into a global icon at Anfield — his departing manager deserved better than this.
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Liverpool’s remaining fixtures: Tottenham (h) May 5; Aston Villa (a) May 13; Wolves (h) May 19.
(Top photo: Andrew Powell/Liverpool FC via Getty Images)
