“If I speak, there will be fire,” said Mohamed Salah after what had been a rarity, a Premier League game when he had been benched. That was at West Ham in April 2024, not November 2025. When he did speak, in December 2025, it was incendiary.
Six goals were shared in an astonishing second half at Elland Road, each overshadowed by a rare audience with Salah. The accusations that followed were extraordinary. That Liverpool have thrown under the bus, that someone – who he left unnamed – wants to blame him, that the club has broken promises to him, that his relationship with Arne Slot is non-existent. Salah dropped hints about his future, talking about waving goodbye when he goes to the African Cup of Nations 2025 could be a permanent farewell. It is possible to view a situation that he deemed unacceptable to him now beyond repair for Liverpool.
Put together, it is perhaps the most remarkable interview from a player of such a stature since Cristiano Ronaldo talked his way into Manchester United, cancelling his contract three years ago. Is that Salah’s endgame? It may not be the preferred one. The most generous interpretation might be that it was the emotional response of a great whose pride has been bruised by his demotion; perhaps by the loss of his powers, too, with this season producing a mere five goals in 19 appearances. He may just want his old status and scoring habit at Liverpool.
And yet, a few minutes earlier and in a different context, Dominik Szoboszlai had said: “What’s said in the dressing room, stays in the dressing room.” Not in Salah’s case, clearly. If troubled times call for unity, these were the actions of an individual.
Szoboszlai has taken Salah’s spot on the right wing, despite not being a right winger. Szoboszlai has also claimed Salah’s mantle as Liverpool’s outstanding player this season. In a time when perhaps only Hugo Ekitike, Federico Chiesa and Ryan Gravenberch can also claim they have had good campaigns, Salah is not the only underachiever.
But neither is he the only one who has been omitted. Just ask Florian Wirtz, the £116m man. If form was the sole criterion for selection, Ekitike should have started more. If wonderful service over a long period was, then Andy Robertson would have been ever-present. Salah has enjoyed preferential treatment in the past, which he repaid in goals and assists. Slot, like Jurgen Klopp, rarely rested him because they knew how much goals mattered to Salah. So his interest usually aligned with Liverpool’s.
Until, suddenly, it didn’t. Salah is right to suggest he is not the only one to blame for Liverpool’s slide. But nor can his past be a guarantee of selection forever. Liverpool have been flawed in his absence but are still unbeaten in the last four Premier League and Champions League games for which he has been benched. They have lost seven of the last nine that he’s started.
For Slot, it feels the final straw was the moment when Mauro Junior skipped past him all too easily to set up Guus Til’s goal that put PSV Eindhoven ahead at Anfield. Since then, Szoboszlai has been installed on the right. Liverpool have looked to defend in two banks of four. It is a tactical choice. Salah’s focus on himself ignores that.
So the most damaging part may be the suggestion that he has no relationship with Slot. Maybe Salah thinks he can outlast a manager who has lost nine of his last 15 games. Such comments could rebound on him: Erik ten Hag was pleasantly surprised by how many people supported him when Ronaldo turned on him.
Slot had wanted Salah to sign the contract that he had penned in April. It was Slot, too, who conjured a season to compare with any of the best Salah produced for Klopp, yielding 29 goals and 18 assists in the Premier League alone last year. Yet by the time the German left, the cracks in his relationship with the Egyptian had become apparent. Now there is a sequel. And if Slot, too, has lost something of his touch this season, if he has made some tactless comments in public, they have not been about Salah. Slot saw Ibrahima Konate concede a penalty at Leeds and said it was a mistake that stemmed from “effort”, from attempting to do the right thing. The same may be said of many another mishap, whether from players or the manager. Salah’s verbal assault belongs in a different category altogether.
There is another party in this relationship: the club, in the form of sporting director Richard Hughes and Fenway Sports Group CEO Michael Edwards, who famously helped persuade Klopp to sign Salah, rather than Julian Brandt. They authorised a huge contract extension, even as Liverpool tend to be wary of paying big money for ageing players. They tend to study the numbers before acting: Salah’s decline may have blindsided them, as well as him.
Salah’s words indicate he does not feel he is a lesser player now. He may, however, have gone down in the estimation of many a Liverpool fan, plus some players and a manager. Is there a way back for him? If one question is whether all parties want there to be, another is whether there is an exit strategy.
In 2023, Liverpool rejected Al-Ittihad’s £150m offer for Salah. They will not get a similar transfer fee now, but it remains to be seen if Saudi interest is revived. But whether he is in Saudi Arabia, at the African Cup of Nations, on the Liverpool bench or banished from the squad for his disloyal comments, it feels ever clearer that the reign of Anfield’s Egyptian king is nearing its end.
 "Mohamed Salah hints at Liverpool exit after explosive ‘thrown under the bus’ claim directed at Arne Slot")
