Mohamed Salah may leave Liverpool after an explosive rant and benching

Will this Saturday see a shocking, sad and incredibly premature end to Mohamed Salah’s Liverpool career, when one of the greatest players in their history could suddenly say goodbye after a truly incredible crisis?

It feels like ‘The Egyptian King’ is about to be dethroned and sensationally leave Liverpool, despite being their star player, becoming a Premier League legend over the last few years and still one of the best strikers on the planet.

For what?

And how did things move so quickly for a club that won the championship last season in dominant fashion and then added several star players in the offseason?

Last weekend, Salah publicly complained about being named as a substitute in Liverpool’s last three games, including never seeing the field against Leeds before losing the pitch and being left out of the squad for Liverpool’s huge 1-0 win at Inter Milan on Tuesday due to his incredible rant towards journalists.

“I have done so much for this club over the years and especially last season,” Salah said. “Now I’m sitting on the bench and I don’t know why. It feels like the club threw me under the bus. That’s how I feel. I think it’s very clear that someone wanted me to take all the blame,” he said.

“The way I see it now, it’s like you throw Mo under the bus because he’s the problem in the team now. But I don’t think I’m the problem. I’ve done so much for this club. Respect, I want to get it. I don’t have to fight every day for my position because I’ve earned it. I’m not bigger than anyone else, but I’ve earned my position. That’s football. That’s what it is.”

Imagine Tom Brady on the bench for the New England Patriots. Would he be happy with it? No. Would he say something like that in public about it? Probably not.

For a current NFL comparison, this would be similar to the Kansas Chiefs benching Patrick Mahomes due to their poor record this season. How would he react?

This is why Salah’s public comments sparked so much outcry. You keep things like that in-house. Now you’ve created quite a mess and you’re watching everyone around you scrambling, at a time when reigning Premier League champions Liverpool are already scrambling and fighting for victory.

Ahead of their match against Brighton this Saturday, Liverpool manager Arne Slot is unsure whether Salah will be welcomed back into his squad. Slot, who seems genuinely hurt and disappointed by the situation, is one of the nice guys and has let Salah brood over his comments and put the ball in his court when it comes to reconciliation.

Liverpool are unbeaten in the four games since Salah was on the bench and have really improved their overall performance. Did Slot make the right choice? Time will tell. But for now, he has the upper hand.

Given Salah’s truly incredible words to reporters, it seems likely that he has played his last game for Liverpool. He will travel to Morocco after Saturday’s match to captain Egypt in the Africa Cup of Nations tournament. He is not expected to return to Liverpool until the January transfer window opens. The timing of Salah’s collapse is clearly significant. If he wants to stay on the bench, he wants to retire. In Salah’s eyes, Liverpool have a month to understand.

Most believe we will never see Salah, who was instrumental in Liverpool’s return to glory and winning two Premier League titles, a Champions League trophy and several other trophies over the last decade, in a Liverpool shirt again.

It’s sad. It’s a shame. But even if no one wants to admit it, this is how it has been happening for the past few months.

Salah, 33, was hammered by Liverpool club legends, fans and just about everyone after his rant. Salah, the third highest scorer in the club’s history with 250 goals, was not supposed to end his legendary Liverpool career this way. He was expected to lead them to more titles and build on his marvelous 2024-25 season, putting together one of the greatest campaigns the Premier League has ever seen.

But his decline this season, like Liverpool’s as a team, has been brutal. The reigning champions are languishing in the middle of the pack and have won just two of their last 10 Premier League games, ending their hopes of back-to-back titles.

That downturn came amid a summer of huge spending on new superstars who took time to consolidate, the tragic death of striker Diogo Jota in July, which hit Salah and his Liverpool teammates extremely hard, and the departure of long-time star Trent Alexander-Arnold.

New superstars Alexander Isak, Hugo Ekitike and Florian Wirtz (who cost a combined $400 million this summer) played well together as a trio without Salah at Inter Milan in midweek, and Dominik Szoboszlai started in Salah’s place on the right and is a more defensive and robust option. For Liverpool as a team, it’s working at the moment, without Salah.

If Salah is to leave Liverpool in the coming weeks, will he be allowed to take to the Anfield pitch against Brighton to say goodbye on Saturday? Will most of the Liverpool fans inside the hallowed ground give him a warm welcome? Or will he be lambasted for the way he aired Liverpool’s dirty laundry in public? The bitter divide he created was the last thing Liverpool needed as they continue to struggle on the pitch.

Is Salah right with some of his rants? Maybe.

He’s nowhere near his best – most would say that’s been the case since he signed his huge new contract in April – but neither have the majority of Liverpool’s players this season. But it’s the fact that he sees himself as a must-have and a guaranteed starter no matter what that has upset Slot, legends and Liverpool fans the most.

Even if you think you’re irreplaceable, as all super talented and driven athletes like Salah usually do, you can’t say it out loud. Or you shouldn’t.

Salah probably deserves some extra breathing room amid Liverpool’s struggles. But as the team endures its biggest crisis in a decade, all eyes are on Salah. And he wasn’t playing. Even though he didn’t think he was the main problem, he now is.

The problem with Salah is that you can clearly make the case that Liverpool look like a better, stronger, more balanced team since Slot dropped him. He scores goals and looks consistent and fluid in attack. Therefore, Salah wants to remind everyone how important and special he is and how he deserves more respect and should not have to play by the same rules as everyone else. But he does it. Even if he doesn’t agree with the manager.

“I have already said several times that I have a good relationship with the manager and all of a sudden we have no relationship,” Salah said. “I don’t know why, but it seems to me, how I see it, that someone doesn’t want me in the club.”

Compared to his public outburst over his contract situation last November, the difference this time around is that most Liverpool fans are not on Salah’s side. These comments were so strong that they probably cost Salah a statue outside Anfield. Will we remember it in 25 years? Probably.

But why now? Why did he decide to bet on the club and the slot machine?

Because it’s not just about picking on Salah and making sure everyone knows he’s not the problem at Liverpool. It’s about ending this on his terms. He knows he is going on an international mission with Egypt in at least the next few weeks and could be sold by early January.

Salah wants to control the situation and, in his eyes, these words have allowed him to do so. This also puts pressure on Slot, and Salah may believe that upon his return in January, Slot could be sacked if Liverpool’s poor league form continues.

But after saying what he did, Salah is no longer in control of his farewell to Liverpool. If he is not on the bench and in the squad against Brighton on Saturday, he will generally not be allowed to be on the pitch during the match.

“I told my family, come to the Brighton game. I don’t know if I’m going to play or not, but I’m going to enjoy it,” Salah said. “In my head I’m going to enjoy this match because I don’t know what’s going to happen now. I’ll be at Anfield to say goodbye to the fans and go to the African Cup. I don’t know what’s going to happen when I get there.”

Will Liverpool put Salah’s comments aside to allow him to say an emotional goodbye to the fans at Anfield this weekend? It would make the hierarchy and Slot look weak if the dispute with Salah is not resolved before Saturday.

Salah’s Liverpool career may have already been over by the time he opened his mouth in the mixed zone last weekend, and now he must deal with the consequences.

If this is the case for Salah, it’s a sad end to one of the greatest careers in Premier League history. Liverpool’s Egyptian king looks set to leave his throne quietly and without any sort of adulation or grand farewell from Anfield.