Following Mohamed Salah‘s pointed comments on his contract situation at Liverpool, Arne Slot refused to be drawn on “a lot of ‘ifs’” regarding his future.
Salah is one of three key players into the final year of his contract at Anfield, and after Sunday’s 3-0 win over Man United revealed he is yet to be approached over an extension.
That has rightly frustrated supporters given his level of performance, even if he is the wrong side of 30, with it seen as negligent by the club’s board.
• READ: Mo Salah insists ‘nobody at Liverpool talked to me about new contract’
Speaking in his post-match press conference at Old Trafford, Slot responded to questions on Salah’s comments and unsurprisingly stepped back.
“It’s a lot of ‘if’, but at this moment he’s one of ours and I’m really, really happy with him being one of ours. He plays really well,” he told reporters.
“I don’t talk about contracts from players, but I can talk for hours about how Mo played today. But are you interested in that?
“He was impressive, like the first two games as well, but if we talk about an individual, you don’t do justice to all the other ones.
“I think today you saw a real good team performance, playing out from the back, high press, midfield that kept on running.
“So of course, all the attention goes to Mo and to Lucho, but that doesn’t do justice to the other nine and the ones that came in.”
With Liverpool having made the distinction of Slot taking over as a head coach, rather than a manager, the Dutchman is well within his rights to avoid questions on recruitment and retention.
Those should be addressed by the club’s sporting director, Richard Hughes, whose sole public interaction was in Slot’s unveiling press conference back in July.
No doubt Slot would be eager to keep Salah beyond 2025 – as well as Virgil van Dijk and Trent Alexander-Arnold – but the onus is on Liverpool’s hierarchy to resolve those deals.
