Jürgen Klopp has dismissed the suggestion that Mohamed Salah could leave Liverpool after the Egypt forward said in an interview last week that his future is “in the hands of the club”.
Salah, who signed a five-year contract extension in 2018 after joining from Roma the previous year, also admitted in an interview with the Spanish newspaper AS that he was “very disappointed” after being overlooked for the captaincy in Liverpool’s 1-1 draw against Midtjylland in the Champions League early this month.
The 28-year-old has been linked with Real Madrid in the past and was asked if he could be interested in a move to La Liga in the future. “Madrid and Barcelona are top clubs,” Salah said. “We never know what is going to happen in the future, but right now I’m focused on winning the Premier and the Champions League again with my club. Of course I want to break records here and, I repeat, every record in the club, but everything’s in the hands of the club.”
Yet Klopp insisted that Salah, who has scored 86 goals in 121 appearances for Liverpool and is the league leaders’ top scorer this season, is “in a good moment”. “We never speak [about contracts],” he said. “Mo is in a good mood and moment, shape and that is the most important. You would have seen him laughing a lot [at training today]. The rest is nice for you to write but internally, nothing really [to say].”
Meanwhile, Klopp confirmed that Thiago Alcântara will not feature against West Brom this weekend. Xherdan Shaqiri and James Milner are both expected to return after injury lay-offs but the Spain international is still working his way back to fitness. “Thiago has made his first steps back towards team training. Not full yet,” said Klopp. “After a long time, we cannot rush it.”
