Ten days on from Mohamed Salah’s announcement that he will leave Liverpool, and four months on from an incendiary interview when he said he had no relationship with Arne Slot, the Dutchman said he had no regrets.
In one respect, anyway. Slot is happy with the way he handled the Salah situation. “Yes,” he said. “I look back at this season thinking that I made a few decisions that could have been better, but I’m not talking about this specific thing with Mo.”
Slot has paid tribute to Salah this week, saying the third-highest scorer in Liverpool’s history will “leave the club a legend”.
He is nevertheless aware that, for some, he is the villain of the piece, the manager who brought the Egyptian king’s reign at Anfield to an end. Slot is seen as the bad guy. “That’s in general at the moment, isn’t it?” smiled Slot, able to laugh at himself.
He may well outlast Salah, but quarter-finals of the Champions League and the FA Cup could set up a glorious farewell to the forward, fit to return against Manchester City on Saturday, or an anticlimactic end to the 33-year-old’s Liverpool career.
Indirectly, Liverpool’s previous trip to the Etihad Stadium formed part of the build-up to Salah’s demotion and then his explosion. Without naming the winger, Slot noted that in Liverpool’s 3-0 defeat, right-back Conor Bradley was sometimes left isolated against Jeremy Doku and Nico O’Reilly.
Two games and two defeats later, Salah was omitted. Starting three games on the bench in a week – even though Slot brought him on at half-time in one of those – prompted a now infamous outburst at Elland Road. It still forms the backdrop to Salah’s departure, even though he has started 12 of the 13 matches for which he has been available since returning from the African Cup of Nations.
“The only one who can talk about it is Mo himself,” countered Slot. “So you are now making the assumption that he wants to leave because he was out for six days, but that doesn’t have to be true. After that incident you are referring to, which are incidents that happen everywhere around the world almost every day when it comes to football, you know what happened afterwards? He went to the Afcon and when he was back, he played [almost] every single game.”
It felt a rapprochement of sorts, a short-term compromise based on a mutual interest in patching things up. Salah had been omitted from the Liverpool squad who went to Italy to win against Internazionale. There were talks before he returned to the fray against Brighton in December, more during Afcon.
Slot is keeping his counsel, but Salah made his decision to go, a year before the end of his lucrative contract, with Liverpool waiving a transfer fee. “Mo has earned the right completely to decide whenever he thinks he should leave,” said Slot. After the private conversations, he expects there will be a more public explanation: but from Salah, rather than him.
“When things like this are announced to the outside world, I don’t think it’s a surprise for you to hear that there are a lot of discussions, talks going on between him, his agent, the club, me and him, before this comes out in the public,” Slot said. “I would be surprised if there’s not a moment when Mo’s going to share his thoughts about why he made the decision he made. It’s not up to me to do that. It’s up to him.”
Where Slot does have a role is in working out who is Salah’s successor. “I know why you ask this question,” said a manager who is aware some of the fanbase want him gone. “Yes, I am [involved].”
Salah’s colossal impact, including 255 goals, 119 assists, three PFA Player of the Year awards, two Premier League titles and one Champions League, means it is not as simple as just signing a right winger. “It is never one player who can replace Mo,” said Slot. “Otherwise there would be 15 or 20 Mo’s and he is one of a kind, which is why he is so special. You cannot find a Mo replacement.”
Arguably, Liverpool started the process last summer, paying around £300m for Alexander Isak, Hugo Ekitike and Florian Wirtz; the impression was that if they would get fewer goals and assists from their right-winger in the future, they required more from other departments of the side.
“Replacing Mo, one-on-one, is probably impossible,” Slot rationalised. “So we have to find a way of making it work that the team is stronger. There is not a lot talked about this but it is 88 minutes that Alexander Isak, Hugo Ekitike and Florian Wirtz were together on the pitch together. So it would already make our team much stronger if we’ve got Alex, Hugo and Florian together for a bit more than 88 minutes.”
Isak could be back on the bench at City. Salah is likelier to start. It is the beginning of the goodbye to a great, with Slot aware some will blame him, but that, among the tributes, his task will entail replacing the irreplaceable.
