It Was All an Act—Klopp on Salah leaving Liverpool

Flashback to a few weeks ago, the future was looking blink for Liverpool. Their star forward, Sadio Mane was eager to exit the club, the famed Egyptian, Mohamed Salah was running out of time, and the speculations were coming up.

Mohamed Salah does not want to sign the contract, he might leave like Mane did, Liverpool are ready to let Salah leave like they did Mane; these were all the headlines.

Even the Liverpool fans were fidgety; losing Mane and Salah all at once in a window? What was Liverpool thinking? Do they have a future planned for this club? Are they expecting Jota, Diaz to lead the rebuild all on their own?

The headlines were there, and so were the stories.

Then you flash-forward to present day, Nunez was brought in from Benfica almost immediately as Mane left, and Salah signed the speculated contract on the first day of July on a sunny day with sun shades on his eyes and a swimming pool in front.

Salah is staying, the Egyptian King said, cue in to the legendary theme.

It all went fast almost as if it was staged solely because it was too poetic. The Liverpool fans were down, and what better way to raise their spirits?

Some believe it was basically coincidence, others thought it was former Liverpool player, Gini Wijnaldum who sat in to have a chat with Mohamed Salah few days before he signed the contract.

But Klopp? What did he think?

It was all part of the plan, he admits. Salah had no intentions leaving. He always wanted to stay. What King would want to leave his kingdom to go start all over again elsewhere when he is loved by his people?

It was all a drama for the world and for the media, something which Jamie Carragher and Salah’s agent had a laugh over on Twitter. ‘We fooled them didn’t we?’ Carragher wrote.

Speaking during the first pre-season press conference, Jurgen Klopp on the matter revealed:

“I knew it would happen, it was always clear Mo wants to stay – that was always the message,” the 55-year-old said.

“I spoke to him obviously and it was always clear: ‘I want to stay.’ But it’s an important contract, different things have to be considered and that’s what takes time sometimes.

“We cannot always fulfil the expectations from the outside world – there’s an ending contract, next year it will end, so sort it now.

“Things need time. But we are obviously experienced enough to deal with these kinds of things.”

“He is very happy now that he can extend his time here. We are very happy, a world-class player,” the tactician continued.

The manager then explained how Liverpool were lucky to have a player like Salah in the team to produce the numbers.

“Imagine you have to sign Mo Salah now; he’s in another club and you want a player with the numbers he created over the years. It’s pretty much not possible. But we have him and he wants to stay – very good news.”

Mohamed Salah currently sits 5^th in the in Liverpool’s top goal scorers history, with him having to beat one man; Ian Rush for top spot.