Liverpool manager Arne Slott spoke with Mo Salah on Friday and his availability for Saturday’s game against Brighton “will depend on the result”.
Slott said earlier this week that he “doesn’t know” whether Salah played his last game for Liverpool, but he appears to have softened his stance ahead of this weekend’s game after revealing that Salah and the club had been in talks with him and his agents throughout the week.
Salah has not started in Liverpool’s last four games and after coming off the bench against Leeds last weekend, he claimed in a bombshell interview that he had been “thrown under the bus” by the club and said his relationship with Slott no longer existed.
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Mo Salah’s bombshell interview after Liverpool’s draw with Leeds
The club then decided to exclude him from the squad for Tuesday’s 1-0 win over Inter Milan, but on the same day Salah posted a photo on Instagram of himself training alone in the gym at the training ground.
Asked on Friday if Salah had played his last game for the club, Slott said: “I will speak to Mo this morning and the outcome of that conversation will decide how tomorrow’s game goes.”
“What I need to do is have a conversation with him, and the next time I talk about Mo, I should be with him, not here. There’s nothing more to say about that. I’m going to talk to him today, and the outcome of that conversation will determine how things go tomorrow.”
“It’s good to try different ways. The next person to talk should be him. We spoke a lot last week after the Sunderland game and there was a lot of conversation between his representatives and our representatives and between him and me.
“And today I’m going to talk to him again.”
Slott: There’s no reason not to want Salah to stay
Slott was asked about his personal aspirations for Salah’s future at Anfield, and the head coach also revealed the decision-making process behind leaving him out of Tuesday’s win in Milan.
“(Who decides) whether he is in the team or not, yes or no? We made the decision as a club. I was also part of the decision not to bring Mo to Inter Milan,” he said.
“I’m always in discussion with[the Liverpool board]but when it comes to team and line-up decisions, it’s always up to me.
“That doesn’t mean I won’t talk to Richard (Hughes). I talk to Richard about a lot of things. But whether I play or not is completely up to me.”
When asked specifically if he wanted Salah to stay, Slott replied: “There’s no reason why I don’t want him to stay. This club has won a lot of games with him.”
Merce: “Liverpool owes Salah a trophy”
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Paul Merson was left out of Liverpool’s squad for the game against Inter Milan after siding with Mohamed Salah after an explosive interview targeting Arne Slott.
Manager Paul Merson has defended Mohamed Salah, claiming Liverpool had “thrown him under the bus” and suggested the club’s trophy cabinet would be even emptier without the Egyptian.
“I’m on Mo Salah’s side. I think he’s too attached.
“Maybe he shouldn’t have done what he did, but he’s a human being. He’s a winner, he’s a legend. The numbers he put up on the side – goals and assists – are extraordinary. In my opinion, we’ll never see that again.”
“All he did was say he wanted to play football. He’s got a hump because he’s not playing. How can he get slaughtered for that?
“There are other players in the team who could be left out and he’s probably thinking, ‘We’re not very good and I can’t play.’ I think that’s wrong.”
“Without Mo Salah, Liverpool wouldn’t have won anything. You took away his goals and assists and I don’t think there will be any trophies in that cabinet for a while.”
