Salah says he has been ‘thrown under the bus’ by Liverpool

Mohamed Salah says he feels like he has been “thrown under the bus” by Liverpool and that his relationship with head coach Arne Slot has broken down.

Salah was an unused substitute in Saturday’s 3-3 draw at Leeds United – the third straight game the Egypt star has started on the bench.

After the game, the scorer of 250 goals in 420 Liverpool appearances said in an extraordinary interview with journalists: “I think it is very clear that someone wanted me to get all of the blame.

“I said many times before that I had a good relationship with the manager, and all of a sudden we don’t have any relationship.

“I don’t know why but it seems to me, how I see it, that someone doesn’t want me in the club.

“It seems like the club has thrown me under the bus. That is how I am feeling. I think it is very clear that someone wanted me to get all of the blame.

“This club, I will always support it. My kids will always support it. I love the club so much and I always will.

“It [the situation] is not acceptable to me, to be fair. I don’t get it. It’s like I’m being thrown more under the bus. I don’t think I’m the problem. I have done so much for this club. I don’t have to fight every day for my position because I earn it. I earned my position.”

Salah, who is going to Africa Cup of Nations on 15 December, added that he was unsure about his Liverpool future, despite signing a new two-year contract in April.

Salah, 33, scored 29 times in the 2024-25 Premier League as the Reds won the title in Slot’s first season in charge.

However, he has struggled for form since as Liverpool have been unable to match the heights of last term.

Salah, who was brought to the club from Roma by Jurgen Klopp in 2017, has scored just four times in 13 top-flight appearances this season.

The Saudi Pro League have long made it their ambition to add Salah – arguably the most recognisable Middle Eastern player on the planet – to their roster of global superstars that includes the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo and Sadio Mane.

Sources have indicated that Al-Hilal, managed by Simone Inzaghi, are among the teams interested in Salah.

BBC Sport has been told that Liverpool are open-minded about Salah’s future amid Saudi interest.

After the Leeds game – when Liverpool led 2-0 and then 3-2 before conceding a 96th-minute equaliser – Liverpool boss Arne Slot told Sky Sports why he did not use Salah at Elland Road.

“It was more about controlling the game [at 3-2] and we didn’t need a goal,” said Slot before Salah’s interview. “Normally when you need a goal, like last week against Sunderland, I brought Mo on.”

Speaking at his pre-match news conference on Friday, Slot said he understood the talk surrounding Salah after being dropped from the team.

“The chatter, yes, because he deserves that, he has been so influential for me and [for] six or seven years. It’s completely normal people talk about it when he isn’t playing,” added Slot.

Salah, third on Liverpool’s all-time list of scorers behind Ian Rush (346) and Roger Hunt (285), made his most recent start in the 4-1 Champions League home defeat by PSV Eindhoven on 26 November.

If Mohamed Salah has played his last game for Liverpool, then the ‘Egyptian king’ will still go down as a Liverpool legend.

Since signing for £34m from Roma in 2016, the 33-year-old has scored 188 goals in the Premier League alone.

Only Alan Shearer (260), Harry Kane (213) and Wayne Rooney (208) have more than Salah’s 190 in the Premier League – he scored two for Chelsea during his time there in 2013-14.

Salah was named the PFA Players’ Player of the Year for last season after scoring 29 goals and adding 18 assists on his way to the Golden Boot and Liverpool’s league title.

Yet the backdrop to that campaign was the story of his contract, with a deal that he signed in 2022 making him Liverpool’s highest-paid player of all time having been set to expire in the summer of 2025.

In April, Salah signed a two-year extension, ending rumours that he was going to depart on a free transfer, but he has been less productive this season, scoring just five goals in 19 appearances.

After starting 53 Premier League games in a row for Liverpool, Salah was benched for the last three games by Arne Slot, with the Reds boss still describing him as a “top professional” and insisting that Salah had responded like any top player would.

Yet the fact that Salah chose to stop and speak in the mixed zone to reporters at Elland Road is telling. He clearly had something to say.

It’s unusual for Salah to stop, and it was after Liverpool beat Southampton at November last year that he came across and declared that he was “probably more out than in” after revealing that Liverpool were yet to offer him a new contract.

Back then, team-mates were shocked to see him seek out reporters and they will be feeling the same after his latest extraordinary remarks.

“I’m very disappointed. I have done so much for this club, especially last season,” he said. “It seems to me that someone doesn’t want me in the club.”

At Liverpool, Salah has won the Premier League twice (2019-20 and 2024-25), the Champions League (2018-19), FA Cup (2021-22), EFL Cup (2021-22) as well as both the UEFA Super Cup and the FIFA Club World Cup in 2019.

On an individual note, he won the Premier League’s Golden Boot top scorer award four times, tying with Thierry Henry for the record. Only Ian Rush and Roger Hunt have scored more goals for Liverpool.

Yet unless Salah can see a way past sitting on the bench, it looks like it could be a sour end for the Premier League legend.

Next weekend, he will leave for the Africa Cup of Nations and right now, the question is whether he will return in January as a Liverpool player.