Arne Slot insists he has no regrets over his handling over ‘one of a kind’ Mohamed Salah, with a fallout between the pair often stated as a reason for the Egyptian deciding to leave Liverpool.
Salah begins his farewell tour at Manchester City on Saturday in an FA Cup quarter-final after announcing his upcoming exit last week.
The 33-year-old has ripped up the final season of his Anfield contract and will leave on a free transfer just 12 months after signing a two-year, £400,000-a-week deal, with many pointing to a public row with Slot – where Salah insisted the pair have ‘no relationship – as a reason.
But asked if he was happy with everything he had done in the situation, Slot insisted: ‘Yes. I look back at this season thinking that I made a few decisions that could have been better but I’m not talking about this specific thing with Mo.
‘I don’t regret many things I did during a little longer than one-and-a-half years together. Again, the assumption that if he’s not playing that he wants to leave – that’s the assumption being made – then he would have left one-and-a-half years ago.
‘I can remember West Ham away when he wasn’t playing. I wasn’t there. He didn’t decide to leave (Salah had a fallout with Jurgen Klopp). The assumption is if you don’t play these games and all of a sudden want to leave, it is an assumption and maybe it is true or maybe it isn’t.
Arne Slot is adamant that he has no specific regrets over his handling of a supposedly strained relationship with Liverpool icon Mohamed Salah
‘But history has shown that he did not do that previously and had a great season after that.’
Slot, whose side also go to France this week for a crunch Champions League quarter-final first leg against Paris Saint-Germain, says succession planning has already started and he is part of those discussions – but admits it will not be easy to replace a player of his stature.
‘We are not starting to work on it now because we are constantly working on where we can improve,’ said the head coach. ‘There is not a lot talked about this but it is 88 minutes that Alexander Isak, Hugo Ekitike and Florian Wirtz were together on the pitch together.
‘So let’s first find out and work out how that works together and that can give us so much more. It is never one player who can replace Mo. Otherwise there would be 15 or 20 Mos and he is one of a kind, which is why he is so special.
‘You cannot find a Mo replacement. Maybe you can but he would not be available (to buy at a realistic fee).’
