Club legend says fixing his relationship with the club means the Egyptian can now leave “the right way”
Steven Gerrard has revealed he advised Mohamed Salah not to leave Liverpool “under a cloud” following the forward’s public fallout with manager Arne Slot.
Salah confirmed last week that he will leave the club this summer after agreeing to end his contract a year early, bringing an end to a nine-year spell at Anfield. The 33-year-old has had a difficult season and previously said he had been “thrown under the bus” by the club after being dropped by Slot during a poor run of results.
Gerrard said he spoke to Salah after that interview and urged him to manage his exit carefully.
“I spoke to him around that interview at the time and sort of said to him, ‘don’t do what you’ve done and go under a cloud,’” Gerrard said on The Overlap.
“I spoke to him directly. He texts me now and again, or I text him – more to do with if I’m going somewhere with Lio [Gerrard’s son], just so Lio can see him, really, but I’m not like close to him.
“But it gave me the opportunity to say to him, ‘look, you’ve been here eight, nine years, you’ve been king here, you’ve got this legacy, just go on your terms, the right way’.
“He was still a little bit emotional from the incident. He was in and out of the team at the time, he was upset. I just thought it would be a shame if he left in January and he just left [without a goodbye].”
Gerrard added that Salah’s departure now appears inevitable and believes it suits all parties.
“I think it’s in everyone’s best interests now,” said Gerrard. “I think the timing’s right. He’s obviously had a disagreement with the manager. I don’t know at what level. He’s obviously done the interview, which I think he’ll regret further down the line. But that told that there was an issue there.”
The relationship between Slot and the player appears to have been fixed and Liverpool’s manager said earlier this week that Salah will depart from Anfield a legend after winning everything at the club.
Salah is expected to attract interest from clubs in the Saudi Pro League and Major League Soccer, although Gerrard believes he may yet remain in Europe.
“Knowing him, the relationship I’ve got with him, he’ll still have himself down as one of the best players in the world,” Gerrard said. “I think that’s the reason why the fallout’s come about.
“He was probably struggling with the transition of a manager saying, ‘you’re not starting today.’ ‘You what? Listen, I’m still one of the best players in the world’.
“I think that’s his mentality, and there are good players, top players, and then those ones at the top that are a little bit freakish in terms of their mentality and how they think. He’s one of them, where he’s just: I’m the best, I’m the best, I’m the best.”
