Mohamed Salah has accused Liverpool of “throwing him under the bus” and said his relationship with head coach Arne Slot is over in an incendiary interview.
Salah said he would say “goodbye” to Liverpool supporters at next Saturday’s Premier League game with Brighton & Hove Albion at Anfield, after which he will report to Egypt’s Africa Cup of Nations camp, because he no longer knows if he has a future at the club.
During a post-match interview that lasted more than seven minutes, Salah said: “I’m very, very disappointed. I have done so much for this club down the years and especially last season.
“Now I’m sitting on the bench and I don’t know why. 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.
“I got a lot of promises in the summer and so far I am in the bench for three games, so I can’t say they keep the promise. I said many times before that I had a good relationship with the manager and all of a sudden, we don’t have any relationship. I don’t know why, but it seems to me, how I see it, that someone doesn’t want me in the club.
“This club, I always support it. My kids will always support it. I love the club so much, I will always do. I called my mum yesterday — you guys didn’t know if I would start or not, but I knew.
“Yesterday I said to [my parents], ‘Come to the Brighton game.’ I don’t know if I am going to play or not but I am going to enjoy it. In my head, I’m going to enjoy that game because I don’t know what is going to happen now. I will be at Anfield to say goodbye to the fans and go the Africa cup. I don’t know what is going to happen when I am there.”
There will be interest from the Saudi Pro League in Salah, who was asked if he had played his last game for Liverpool after eight years in which he has won two league titles and the Champions League. He has scored 250 goals and is third on the club’s all-time scoring list behind Ian Rush and Roger Hunt.
“In football you never know,” he said. “I don’t accept this situation. I have done so much for this club. “I don’t want to answer this question [about Saudi], because the club is going to take me to a different direction.
“After what I have done for the club it really hurts. You can imagine, really. After going from home to the club and you don’t know if you are starting. I know the club too well, I have been here many years. Tomorrow [Jamie] Carragher [former Liverpool defender and Sky Sports’ pundit ] is going to go for me again and again and that’s fine.
“I have been at this club, scoring more than anyone in this generation, since I came to the Premier League, I don’t think anyone has scored more goals and made more assists than me. In the whole Premier League. If I am somewhere else, everybody would go to the media and defend the players. I am the only one in this situation.
“Can I give an example? It’s silly but I am sorry. I remember a while go, Harry Kane was not scoring for ten games, everyone in the media was like, ‘Oh, Harry will score for sure, when it comes to Mo everyone is like ‘he needs to be on the bench’. I am sorry Harry!”