Liverpool great Graeme Souness says Mohamed Salah was “selfish” in final season at Liverpool 

Sometimes stars don’t align. Sometimes they collide and spark a cataclysmic explosion of galactic proportions. One Liverpool legend has taken aim at another club icon who is leaving the club after nine years with the club.

Slot and Salah turn on each other

Mohamed Salah announced he would be leaving Anfield back in March, and it seemed like a long time coming. This season was marred by an on going, underlying spat with manager Arne Slot who saw his dependency on the Egyptian drop in his second season on the Liverpool touchline. This came after Salah scored a career high 29 goals and helped lead the club to their second Premier League title.

Salah was openly critical about Slot and his style of play. After a loss to Leeds United, the Reds’ number 11 did an interview following the disappointing result and went on to vent about his ever changing situation. “[The] club promised me a lot in the summer. Now I’m on the bench, so I can say they haven’t kept those promises. I used to have a good relationship [with Arne Slot]. Now we don’t have any relationship, and I don’t know why. [It] seems like someone does not want me in the club,” said Salah.

Another Liverpool legend didn’t take too kindly to the public condemnation of Slot. Graeme Souness, who played with the club for six years in the 70s and 80s was critical of how Salah handled a difficult situation in his final year at the club. “I think Salah is a major problem. I’m a bit disappointed in him with the way he’s left. It’s all about him. He should have gone gracefully and he’s not done that,” said the Scotsman. “He should have accepted his situation and not come out with the selfish words he came out with after the Leeds United game.”

Souness claims sour grapes

Souness knows a thing or two about winning at the Merseyside club. He won five Football League First Division titles in his six years as a Red, four league cups and three European Cups. He would end his time at Liverpool with a treble, under much better circumstances than Salah did. “Accept your best days are behind you. Don’t come out and blame everyone else,” said Souness.

Salah also went to social media after the loss to Aston Villa late in the season, referencing his former manager, Jurgen Klopp, and the style of play he brought to Anfield. “Us crumbling to yet another defeat this season was very painful and not what our fans deserve. I want to see Liverpool go back to being the heavy metal attacking team that opponents fear and back to being a team that wins trophies. That is the football I know how to play and that is the identity that needs to be recovered and kept for good. It cannot be negotiable and everyone that joins this club should adapt to it.,” Salah posted on his X account.

Salah said his official goodbye to the club and his supporters on the final Sunday of the season. It was an emotional day for the Egyptian, but Souness wasn’t impressed by the way he parted ways with the club. “He’s tried to drag the manager down with him. I find that so disappointing,” claimed Souness. “He is a great player and will go down in history as a great player. But I just think he’s let himself down in the way he’s conducted himself leaving Liverpool.”

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