Gary Lineker expressed his dismay at the chain of events involving Mo Salah over the past week.
After being omitted from the Liverpool starting XI for the third time in seven days, the Egyptian let loose on Saturday night in a fiery interview which has triggered enormous reaction across the footballing landscape.
The 33-year-old didn’t travel with the Reds squad for the Champions League clash against Inter Milan in midweek, instead posting a photo of himself in the AXA Training Centre gym on Instagram on the day of the match.
On Wednesday, he took to the social media site again to share a cryptic image of himself sat on a bench and looking across an empty field, again with the notable absence of any accompanying text or caption.
Lineker laments ‘sad’ Salah situation
Speaking on The Rest Is Football, Lineker believes that Salah might now have regrets over his public tirade last Saturday and hopes that the winger can reconcile with Arne Slot before flying out to Morocco for the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) next week.
The former Match of the Day host said: “I find it a little bit sad, yeah. Obviously lot of the footballing world are attacking Mo, and I understand why.
“I just hope his legacy is not spoiled here. I think he’s just got a bit emotional and he got caught out at the wrong time having not been brought on. I wonder if he regrets it now. I saw him post on Instagram of him just in the gym, totally on his own.
“I hope they can find a way out of this. Maybe Mo can go, ‘Well, you know, I’m sorry. I got a bit emotional. I shouldn’t have done it, blah blah blah’. That might sort it out. Otherwise, what they’re going to do at the weekend now, I suspect he’ll be out again because he’s got the Africa Cup of Nations.
“If they can have some kind of a peace conference before he goes, kiss and make up, go away, play the Africa Cup of Nations, come back refreshed, reinvigorated, perhaps slightly apologetic…it’d be awful if it ended kind of miserably after such a wonderful nine years.”
Hopefully Salah’s Liverpool career won’t end on such a low ebb
Lineker’s comments about Salah possibly regretting his actions echo what Steven Gerrard said in recent days, and those two ex-players had refreshing views on the situation in welcome contrast to the fire being spat by many other pundits who are only too happy to pile on the 33-year-old.
If the winger isn’t able to make peace with Slot and the club and ends up departing Liverpool unceremoniously next month, it’d be a crying shame for such a glittering Anfield career to end.
If that does happen, many will argue that the Egyptian brought it on himself by going nuclear in a public setting, but it still wouldn’t feel right for his time on Merseyside to end on such a low ebb.
Rather than merely venting at Salah, Lineker has taken into account the human side of this story and recognised that it’d be terrible for the forward’s LFC legacy to be forever tarnished by one ill-judged rant.
Even if it doesn’t happen before he goes to AFCON, hopefully the 33-year-old and Slot can make amends and put this unsavoury episode to one side, with the player getting back to creating positive on-field headlines instead of what’s dominated the discussion boards in recent days.
You can watch Slot’s full post-Inter Milan press conference below, via Empire of the Kop on YouTube:
Put yourself for a moment in the head of Salah.
How good has he been over several years at Liverpool football club. 29 goals and 18 assists last season, for me he was at his best last season. Slot gave him Licence to be free of defensive duties, everyone was happy as we lifted the premier league. Slot took the credit for the new role for Salah, Salah explained what the manager wanted from him as he won numerous Awards.
I totally agree that if you have any problems you don’t hang your dirty washing on the line for everyone to see, it’s not the Liverpool way. Keep any grievances behind closed doors.
Is Salah our best player? Yes, he’s on the highest wages because he’s our best player.
is Salah responsible for all the problems this season. No. Slot has said many times this season that defending is about the team not individuals.
I think Salah has been frustrated with his own high standards, it’s the first really bad dip in form since we signed him. I think he would look at others in the team, especially the new signings, who have struggled, and haven’t been dropped. You have to treat your star players differently to the rest, you can’t drop Salah for four games and not tell him why he’s been dropped. It’s poor management. It also looks bad on FSG and Richard Hughes who recently gave him a massive new contract who now accept that Salah should be dropped. Has wirtz been any worse than Salah. He has why hasn’t he been dropped.
Wirtz offers nothing without the ball. To be fair neither does Salah. They’re in the team to win games in the final third. Which begs the question, who thought it would be a great idea to have Salah and wirtz in the same team, because that was the plan in the summer, by the manager, Edwards, Richard Hughes and FSG, two players in a 4231 , that will never track back.
You don’t pay 116 million on wirtz and pay Salah 400,000 a week to sit on the Bench. Is this good planning from slot, Edwards, Hughes and FSG.
If it is why are we packing the midfield . Why didn’t we play four midfielders from the first game.
It’s an effing shambles, and you know it is .
I cannot understand why slot mentioned in the seedorf interview if Salah feels he is wrong. If players are not allowed to speak to the media, then why don’t they ban it? Or are players only allowed to talk about good things in front of the media? This is UK and not NK.
Unfortunately, the way it is shaping up, Salah is more out than in. I’m glad some sensible legends like lineker, Gerrard and seedorf see this differently than most others who simply just go with the flow.