“I didn’t rate you as a player, I don't rate you as a manager, and I don't rate you as a person.” Roy Keane’s character assassination of Mick McCarthy covered all bases when he launched into the Republic of Ireland manager in front of the whole squad before the 2002 World Cup. Keane left camp shortly after.
In the long field of feuds between players and their managers, Mohamed Salah’s current falling out with Arne Slot at Liverpool lacks the explosive rhetoric of Keane’s withering takedown of McCarthy, but still ends with one heading towards the exit. Unless there is a remarkable rapprochement and Salah shows contrition, his days are numbered at Liverpool. Realistically, no statements about peace breaking out can repair the damage. A clean break is needed.
Liverpool is a club that sees the team as family, cherishes unity, and likes to keep any tensions in-house. Their highest-paid player smashed that protocol with his outpouring against Slot after being left on the bench for a third game in succession.
Salah trained with the squad on Monday, but Liverpool decided that he would not fly out to Milan for Tuesday’s Champions League tie with Inter Milan. This is a thoroughly sensible decision by Liverpool and also sends a message to Salah. The club’s in charge.
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Usually, in such disputes, it’s the player going. Keane’s Manchester United club-mate, David Beckham, was infamously hit by a boot kicked by Sir Alex Ferguson as they argued in the Old Trafford dressing room over the midfielder’s positioning for an Arsenal goal in 2003. It was Ole Gunnar Solskjær’s boot that Ferguson connected with, sending it spiralling through the air and cutting Beckham above the eye. Butterfly stitches symbolised the gaping wound in their relationship and Beckham moved to Real Madrid shortly after. And he kept the boot.
At Arsenal, Mesut Özil fell out with Unai Emery in 2019 and then with Mikel Arteta in ’20, was omitted from their Europa League squad and then from their Premier League squad. Özil won some goodwill in the PR battle by offering to pay the wages of the popular fan who dressed up as the large mascot Gunnersaurus on match days. Arsenal made the fan redundant in a cost-cutting exercise. So Özil was briefly depicted as The Man Who Saved Gunnersaurus. Even having won the sympathy vote, Özil still got eased out of the club.
It’s a familiar occurrence in football. If Salah versus Slot was the main title fight in player-manager bouts, there would be a long undercard. Mario Balotelli fought with Roberto Mancini at Manchester City in 2013, even wrestling each other when tempers spilled over at training.
Cristiano Ronaldo crossed swords with Erik ten Hag at Man Utd in 2022, delivered some cross words to Piers Morgan in an emotional interview and stormed out of Old Trafford. Marcus Rashford was desperate to escape from Ruben Amorim and United in ’24 and ’25. Amorim was equally desperate to help Rashford leave. The theme of all these is that no player is bigger than the club. The manager has to be backed; otherwise, it’s anarchy.
Breaking up is hard to do, making up is even harder and it’s hard to see this Salah-Slot rift being healed. It is spectacular: a fall-out between the Player of the Year and the Manager of the Year. Salah did not deliver his words angrily. He’d clearly been thinking about them. Where Salah lost immediate sympathy was in stating he’d earned the right to start because of what he’d done for Liverpool in the past. That goes against the concept of elite sport. Salah’s form isn’t good enough. The stats are stark, and FSG focuses on numbers. In his last 30 games, Salah has scored seven goals. In his previous 30, Salah scored 25. Do the maths. And he’s 33.
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It seems like the club has thrown me under the bus. That is how I am feeling. I think it is very clear that someone wanted me to get all of the blame.Mohamed Salah
It’s also nonsense for Salah to claim he’s hardly played. Of Liverpool’s attackers, only Cody Gakpo has played more minutes in the Premier League this season (1,138 minutes to Salah’s 1,119 minutes).
When the Salah news broke at 9.10 p.m. UK time on Saturday, I was at a party hosted by Sunderland fans still celebrating last Wednesday’s point at Anfield. I found a quiet room away from the loud worship of Granit Xhaka’s leadership to go on a BBC radio phone-in to debate Salah’s outburst. One caller suggested Salah had trashed his legacy at Liverpool. He hasn’t. Fans will remember the good times. There were so many of them: 250 goals, 113 assists, eight trophies, including two Premier Leagues and the Champions League, in 420 games. Salah’s a bona fide Liverpool legend.
Many fans will salute Salah, but remember that the club shaped by the great Bill Shankly was built on selflessness. “For a player to be good enough to play for Liverpool, he must be prepared to run through a brick wall for me, then come out fighting on the other side,” Shankly said. Not complain.
Shankly’s club, and specifically FSG, cannot afford to let Salah win this. It would further undermine Slot’s position. It needs considering—briefly—if Slot is the real problem here. Some fans question Slot’s man-management skills but these were hailed as strengths last season. Slot has a directness often associated with the Dutch that works well during the good times but some sensitive characters can be unnerved. But players have to be stronger and respond to the challenge.
At a time when Liverpool needed a focused, productive Salah supporting Slot, they got only trouble. Slot is not in the strongest position following a run of only four wins in 15 games, but Salah’s outburst does open the exit door—for the player. FSG and Slot, and the recruitment kings, Richard Hughes and Michael Edwards, have to seize this opportunity to guide Salah through the door and accelerate the rejuvenation of the club.
Salah, at 33, is really the past, and a very glorious one. Florian Wirtz, 22, Hugo Ekitiké, 23, and Alexander Isak, 26, are the future. The newcomers just have to aspire to the standards Salah once set.
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The sad reality for Salah is that Liverpool now has less need for him than he does for them. In the three games that he was benched for, Liverpool were unbeaten. The win over West Ham and draws with Sunderland and Leeds United weren’t great performances but Liverpool’s problems were in defence not attack. Liverpool still scored six times without Salah.
I had a good relationship with the manager and all of a sudden, we don't have any relationship.Mohamed Salah
His departure would bring in a fee of sorts for a player with 20 months left on his contract and free up wages, reportedly around $533,000 (£400,000) a week. Liverpool could then trigger the £65 million ($86 millon) release clause to secure Antoine Semenyo. Bournemouth’s exciting 25-year-old winger scored twice at Anfield earlier this season and would provide the sort of service from the wing that Isak thrives on. Salah cuts inside.
Tactically, Salah is missing the passing of Trent Alexander-Arnold. It doesn’t help Salah that there’s a rotation of right backs behind him, including Jeremie Frimpong, Conor Bradley, Dominik Szoboszlai, Joe Gomez, Wataru Endō and Curtis Jones. Far more significantly and emotionally, Salah is also missing his friend Diogo Jota, who died in a horrific car crash with his brother in July. There is plenty of sympathy for Salah.
He claims he’s not feeling the love at Liverpool. One minute he’s doing a new contract photoshoot sitting on a throne and then next he’s feeling thrown under the bus. But he’s thrown Slot and the club under the bus. For Liverpool to get moving again, they have to move the great Salah on.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Mohamed Salah, Arne Slot Debacle Is Ugly—Liverpool Must Now Do What’s Necessary.
