26 May 2023 , 21:30
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Jurgen Klopp has dismissed the idea of Mo Salah leaving this summer, by insisting “Mo loves this club”.
But the Liverpool manager made clear that if any player has doubts about staying at Anfield after the failure to qualify for the Champions League, then he will drive them to a new club himself.
Salah sparked fears that he is contemplating a move in the off season, after a bizarrely worded tweet - which smacked of agent influence - on Thursday evening, suggesting his deep disgust with missing out on top level European football.
But Klopp countered brutally: “If ever a player would come to me, and said: ‘oh we didn’t qualify for the Champions League, I have to leave, I would drive him to the other club myself.
“I would take the key, (and say) ‘come in the car, where do you want to go, I drive you’.”
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Salah’s tweet said he was “totally devastated” at missing out on the Champions League, and added: “There’s absolutely no excuse for this. We failed, and we let you and ourselves down.”
With PSG amongst clubs linked with interest, there was inevitable concern from fans that his representatives were engineering a transfer, but Klopp responded firmly, when asked if he feared Salah would leave:
Salah admitted he was devastated to miss out on the Champions League places (PA)“I have no worries, no. I couldn’t read anything that could lead in that direction. Obviously Mo loves being here and Mo was part of, he said, apologies for what ‘we’ did.
“He didn’t say: ‘apologies for what the other guys did, but I had to go with them’…not at all. It is all fine.”
At 31 though Salah has only limited seasons left to play at European football’s top table, and there are others in the squad - with Virgil van Dijk also 31, Alisson 30, and Andy Robertson and Fabinho both 29 - in the same position.
But Klopp was brutal in his put down of any player who wanted to leave because of one season outside the Champions League, and he added with pointed intent:
“That would be something I never could understand. It is like I would say (he puts on a childish voice for emphasis) ‘oh we didn’t qualify for the Champions League, I need to work in the Champions League so I go’.”