Arne Slot left Mohamed Salah out of the starting lineup for a Champions League quarter-final against PSG.
Mo Salah is arguably one of Liverpools greatest legends, but the treatment he has received this season does not reflect that status at all. It is not unexpected for aging stars to have less impactful roles in their farewell seasons, but in Salah’s case theres a little more to it than meets the eye.
This is not a rotation decision or a fitness concern, this is a manager making a very deliberate, very public statement about a player who announced two weeks ago that he is leaving the club at the end of the season, who missed a penalty in a 4-0 FA Cup defeat to City, and whose relationship with his coach has been openly broken since December, when Salah said on camera that someone at Liverpool was throwing him under the bus and that he didn’t feel wanted.
Salah’s contract, which he signed only last April, is being cut short by a year through mutual agreement, and a difficult season has seen him dropped and publicly fall out with Arne Slot in a way that neither side seems to have been able to walk back from, regardless of the apologies and the diplomatic statements that followed. What happened on Wednesday night at the Parc des Princes was the logical conclusion of everything that has been building since that Leeds interview, a manager who has decided he can win without his most decorated player, in the biggest game of a disappointing season.
The result, a 2-0 loss with Liverpool recording zero shots on target and 26% possession does not exactly vindicate the decision to bench Mo Salah. But that is almost beside the point now, because the story of Mohamed Salah’s final months at Anfield has become something messier and sadder than anyone wanted it to be, and a player who deserves a proper send-off keeps having the narrative pulled in a direction that makes that harder to give him.
Nine years, 255 goals, every major trophy available. It should not be ending like this.
