By not speaking to the media at West Ham United on Saturday afternoon, Mohamed Salah actually spoke volumes. And for a player who has chosen to go to the plate in mixed zones - the area where journalists can ask players to stop for interviews - just twice during his nearly seven-year stint with the Reds, his one-line rejection is at the gathered press at the London Stadium was in fact the most he has said in years.
The players are not required to stop and chat after matches outside of rights holders such as Sky Sports and TNT Sport, and they often do so as a courtesy to the reporters they know. As a result, Salah, as he is right, has more often than not chosen to politely decline the requests that come in every week without fail. It's become something of a running joke between the player and the journalists who ask this out of habit, knowing that the friendly rejection always comes back.
In 2018, Salah made good on his promise to speak out after reaching the 40-goal mark in his debut campaign, before also keeping his words a year later as Liverpool won the Champions League in Madrid. A promise, made half in jest, it should be emphasised, to talk 'when' the Reds completed a quadruple, was also given when he left Wembley as an FA Cup winner in May 2022.
PAUL GORST: IAN DOYLE: Mohamed Salah's anger does not reveal Liverpool's truth as Jurgen Klopp's plea has been misinterpreted What Mohamed Salah did in the 77th minute gave Arne Slot an early headache for LiverpoolSince then, apart from any sit-down interviews pre-arranged through the club or his agent, Colombian lawyer Ramy Abbas, Salah has avoided going public without coercion. The Egypt captain is well aware of his position within the sport as one of the world's superstars and he knows that his words carry weight. They are carefully and meticulously picked and given sparingly. So when Salah speaks, he has something to say and it has meaning.
That's why his offer, as he walked to the exit at West Ham United on Saturday afternoon, was studied by dozens of media outlets and has since been analyzed in detail.
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"There will be a fire today when I speak," Salah said as he walked on in response to requests from first the ECHO and then the Athletic. When asked to clarify whether he had indeed said the word 'fire', he replied: "Of course!"
The incident was captured on film by ESPN Brasil and has since been shared by, among others, Italian journalist Fabrizio Romano, who has more than 20 million followers on social media platform X.
The phrase has inevitably caused an uproar among Liverpool's fanbase, but it should also be emphasized that Salah was in good spirits when he said the words, which came after his sideline brawled with Jurgen Klopp as he was ready to move forward coming on as a substitute in the second half of the second half. -2 draw. There was no anger, resentment or frustration from Liverpool's number 11, but an acceptance that anything he could add at that moment would only inflame the situation further. Fire, indeed.
The fallout and subsequent response from Salah - if not necessarily Klopp, who attempted to play down the incident - have led to speculation and debate about what will happen next for a player with just over twelve months left on the biggest contract all time on Merseyside. .
Some have pointed to a similar disagreement between Klopp and his then-captain Jordan Henderson at Manchester United in 2019 as evidence as to why this could all be a storm in a teacup. It's a valid point against the flood of reactions keen to portray this latest incident as the point of no return for the relationship between Salah and Klopp.
But for someone who turns 32 in June, there is a legitimate decision to be made about Liverpool's new hierarchy, and it will be made without bias or sentiment about what the Reds' top scorer of the Premier League era has previously achieved.
Michael Edwards, CEO of football at Fenway Sports Group, will be the one at the top of that structure and have the final say, but the opinions of incoming sporting director Richard Hughes and new manager Arne Slot will also carry significant weight . That said, the fact that Salah has largely continued to perform since signing his three-year extension in the summer of 2022 on the Greek island of Mykonos will also be taken into account.
One of the deciding factors surrounding the call to make the frontman by far the highest-paid player in Anfield history was his own belief that he could continue to post the kind of numbers that allowed him to have such to demand a princely title. sum in the first place.
Salah is believed to earn around £350,000 but is heavily incentivized to potentially go past £400,000 if certain criteria are met and it was the club's confidence in Salah's belief in his own abilities that led to the extension was written down.
Since signing on the dotted line at the end of June 2022, the former Roma man has scored a total of 54 goals and is currently 26 ahead of Robbie Fowler as the Reds' top scorer in the Premier League. There can be little doubt that he justified it from a personal perspective.
There is also the question of whether or not the Saudi Pro League's interest will continue. The club rejected a £150 million bid from SPL champions Al-Ittihad in August and there is a legitimate debate going on as to whether there is general interest from both players and clubs in Saudi Arabia to continue continue what started last summer. namely a mass exodus of major players for eye-watering contracts. There are no European teams that can offer what was on the table for Salah last year, that's for sure.
So the big question is: will Salah continue to perform after next summer? If the answer is no, then a sale should be a priority this summer to complement the rebuilding of the squad. If it is believed he will do so, negotiations should be stepped up sooner rather than later.
Recent performances have been a pale imitation of what was shown before Egypt's hamstring injury during the Africa Cup of Nations in January. For some, that problem was the catalyst for the recession. Only 14 of his 41 appearances have come since that setback and only eight since the start.
That muscle injury, involvement in AFCON and the lack of form that has followed since have all meant Salah has been limited to just 804 of the 2,400 minutes Liverpool have played since scoring twice in a 4-2 win over Newcastle United on New Year's Day.
These figures point to an obvious impact from an injury that left him without Liverpool for two and a half months between early January and mid-March, although others have questioned whether this is a player now in irreversible decline.
It will be the job of Edwards, Hughes and Slot to find out where the truth really lies with Salah. What happens when they find their answer will be fascinating.
