Salah: Klopp departure won’t affect me

In a special interview with Sky Sports’ Jamie Carragher, Mohammed Salah made it clear that Jurgen Klopp’s departure would not influence his future this summer.

Klopp’s announcement in January that he will depart at the end of the season raised speculation about whether Salah might also leave the club alongside him.

His response was straightforward: “No.” He explained that change is a natural part of football, highlighting that significant players have already left, and now the manager, also a crucial figure for the club, is departing as well.

“No,” he said.

“It’s part of life now, that everything moves. Players have left already, very important players. The manager is also very important for the club and is leaving. One day I will leave the club, but no [Klopp leaving doesn’t affect my future].”

To say Salah was stunned at Klopp’s shock announcement on January 26 is an understatement.

Since joining Liverpool in 2017, Mohamed Salah has worked under only one manager, Jurgen Klopp.

In fact, he believed the bizarre 10.30am meeting that day was going to see the German manager announce a new contract with the Merseyside club.

“Usually we don’t do meetings at 10.30am, as 10.30 is the report time. It’s normally a 10.30 meet time and then 12 noon training. Then they said there was a meeting at 10.30am. I was like: ‘What?’

The manager’s agent was there at the training ground and I thought: ‘Oh, he’s renewing his contract’.

“And five minutes before the meeting, Virgil [van Dijk] said: ‘Do you know what the meeting is about?’

“I said no. He said: ‘The manager is leaving’.

“I said: ‘Really, the manager is leaving? You serious? Why?’

“He said: ‘No idea’.

Then the manager came in and he just said it and it was weird because no-one knew before. There was nothing in the media. He didn’t even prepare us for that, he just said it. That was a weird day for us and for the club.”

The task for Liverpool’s players is to now deliver as many trophies as possible before Klopp’s exit. The Carabao Cup is already in the bag, while an FA Cup quarter-final with Manchester United is on next week’s agenda.

The Reds are all but into the Europa League quarter-finals after dispatching Sparta Prague 5-1 in the last-16 first leg in midweek – and then there is the Premier League. A mouthwatering clash with Manchester City this Sunday, live on Sky Sports with a 3.45pm kick-off, will go some way to dictating the outcome of this year’s title race.

They are decisive games, if I am being honest,” Salah said. “There have been a few years where they have won the league by one point, so when we lost at the Etihad, that was a game where they won the league.

“It’s always a decisive game and I think if we win the next game, we have a great chance to win the title. But I think we have to focus on what we can do and we go from there.”