Salah and his Liverpool slot

The 8th place in the Champions League sounds better than the 10th place in the Premier League anyway, and the calendar seems favorable for a direct qualification, with a trip to Marseille and a final match at “Anfield” with Qarabaq. It just seems, because nothing is certain about how things went at the champion of England this season.

But Liverpool is not the subject of this text. And neither is the match against Inter on Tuesday night. Ci Mo Salah. The Egyptian is in the foreground now, after what happened at the weekend and after the sequence of subsequent events.

Of course, the story of the match with Inter cannot be left out, because if it had not been won, maybe the situation would not have been so calm today. We know how this match was won, with a penalty that in the Premier League, even Arne Slot says, would never have been given. Even in Serie A it probably wouldn't have been given, although the Italians, the inventors of the “moviola” however, have a tendency to such exaggerations.

I wouldn't have expected it from a German, honestly, but look, in today's arbitration, made as if no one understands it anymore, DNA doesn't really matter anymore. In fine. The match was headed for a 0-0 which, it seems, Cristi Chivu also wanted, who is once again “punished” in the finals of the match for this, let's say, strategy. This 0-0 was not necessarily bad for Arne Slot either, but the victory comes perfectly to him.

Full support for Arne Slot

Arne Slot, disappointed. Liverpool just suffered their first defeat of the season / Photo: Imago

And now I return to the subject of Salah. However, staying on “San Siro”. Because at the end of the match with Inter, the Liverpool fans who came to Milan chanted the name of the Dutch technician. They could not do it, they could have remained focused only on the players, but they chose to show their support for the coach who gave them the opportunity last season to celebrate a title at “Anfield”, after the Covid had blocked this joy for Klopp.

There is a kind of message here, which comes as a continuation of the one sent by the officials. Namely, that no one is more important than the club, not even the most important footballer of the “cormorants” since Steven Gerrard.

I won't go back to the context, I think it's known. More precisely Salah's statements, coming after a 3rd consecutive match as a reserve, but in which he had not played even a minute. The Egyptian was removed from the team away to Italy, a decision, I think it is clear to everyone, that Arne Slot could not take without the management's approval.

Salah is not someone and, especially, he has not been someone in these years, and his removal is not as simple as, with all due respect, a Curtis Jones or a Joe Gomez. But the club stood firmly and unequivocally behind the coach and against the superstar, which, frankly, is a far better decision than many made this summer during the mercato period.

Anything else would have dangerously opened the way to anarchy, to a slight dictatorship of the dressing room, and we only have to look at Real Madrid and listen more carefully to Guardiola's words on Tuesday to understand why. This does not mean that Arne Slot will not be able to be fired, on the contrary, this is very possible to happen soon, but in no case as a result of a conflict, let's say technically, with a player. Be he, perhaps, the most important of the lot.

Motives and strategies

Mohamed Salah // photo: Imago Images

But what made Salah come forward and throw out those words to practically dynamite his relationship with the coach? Football-wise, there wouldn't really be any reasons, because all the statistics show a clear decrease in the Egyptian's numbers compared to last year.

But if he felt that this ostracism came from the club's desire to get rid of him? Not necessarily because of him, as a person, but because of the zeros in his weekly salary. 400,000 pounds, more precisely, because Salah knew how to play his cards very well last season and got not only a contract extension but also a salary increase. Something that, frankly, is not often done considering that we are talking about a footballer who is over 30 years old.

Far be it from me that Liverpool made a mistake in giving him this new contract. And it seemed to me that it was the best solution at the time. And, honestly, raise two fingers up who thought then, being a Liverpool fan, that it was an error!

The mistake was revealed later, after the aggressive mercato campaign in the summer, because if they had a sufficiently clear strategy the club bosses would have assumed the departure of the Egyptian in return for the names that came. But I'm starting to think that the strategy didn't exist, and the overlap of Isak's transfer over Ekitike's and the lack of vision in the defensive area reinforces this idea.

So, going back, if Salah felt the door opening for him, how would you say? And he decided to fight back? It's a possibility. Just as another possibility would be for him to squeeze the bosses with that door himself. Which, perhaps, would have had in mind to take out some money from a transfer in the winter, on the idea that the player still has 18 months left on his contract. Well, I think this possibility no longer exists. If he has to leave, Salah will leave for free and Liverpool will be content with the money saved from unpaid wages.

Reconciliation or departure?

Now it's time to talk about the future. Is there any possibility of reconciliation between him and the coach? Certainly yes, if there is a dispute between the two. I've seen situations like this resolved peacefully before. Salah will apologise, find a way to say that he said what he said out of anger, but that he doesn't really mean it. With two goals and three decisive assists, he also erases the anger of the fans.

But if this reconciliation does not occur? Saudi Arabia is waiting for him with open arms (and accounts), in other words, doubling his salary, possibly paying in one installment, because it would be only a few hours of oil extraction (according to Google, Saudi Arabia produces more than 700 million dollars daily from extraction). “The Athletic” says that America could also be a destination, specifically San Diego, where the club is owned by an English billionaire with Egyptian origins, Mohamed Mansour.

January will tell us. Salah will go to the African Cup and who knows, the soil of his home continent and everything that happens in the air there will change his vision. And the prospects. One thing is certain: by the way he behaved, the Egyptian has undeservedly overshadowed everything he has built for Liverpool in these years.

And I think one more thing is certain. If Salah's stats were identical to last year, we wouldn't be having this discussion.