Steven Gerrard has revealed he advised Mohamed Salah not to leave Liverpool “under a cloud” following the Egyptian’s public fallout with manager Arne Slot and insists it’s in “everyone’s best interests” to leave.
Salah announced last week he will depart Anfield in the summer after agreeing to end his contract a year early.
The 33-year-old has endured a difficult season and claimed during a post-match interview in December to have been “thrown under the bus” by Slot, having been dropped to the bench amid a poor run of results.
Former Reds captain Gerrard believes it is the right time for Salah, who has scored 255 goals in 435 appearances for the club, to leave at the end of the campaign.
“I spoke to him around that interview at the time and sort of said to him, ‘don’t do what you’ve done and go under a cloud,'” said Gerrard, speaking on The Overlap podcast.
“I spoke to him direct. He texts me now and again, or I text him — more to do with if I’m going somewhere with Lio [Gerrard’s son], just so Lio can see him, really, but I’m not like close to him.
“But it gave me the opportunity to say to him, ‘look, you’ve been here eight, nine years, you’ve been king here, you’ve got this legacy, just go on your terms, the right way’.
“He was still a little bit emotional from the incident. He was in and out of the team at the time, he was upset. I just thought it would be a shame if he left in January and he just left [without a goodbye].”
Reds head coach Slot said on Wednesday that Salah will “leave the club a legend” having won two Premier League titles and the Champions League since joining from Roma in 2017.
Gerrard believes the forward will ultimately regret his explosive interview, which followed being an unused substitute in a 3-3 draw at Leeds on Dec. 6.
Asked if he was shocked by news of Salah’s imminent departure, the 45-year-old replied: “No, not at all. I think it’s in everyone’s best interests now. I think the timing’s right.
“He’s obviously had a disagreement with the manager. I don’t know at what level. He’s obviously done the interview, which I think he’ll regret further down the line. But that told that there was an issue there.”
Salah, who is poised to become a free agent, has been linked with a move to the Saudi Pro League or Major League Soccer.
However, Gerrard would not be surprised to see him remain in Europe.
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“Knowing him, the relationship I’ve got with him, he’ll still have himself down as one of the best players in the world,” the former England midfielder said.
“I think that’s the reason why the fallout’s come about.
“He was probably struggling with the transition of a manager saying, ‘you’re not starting today,’ [and he is thinking] ‘you what? Listen, I’m still one of the best players in the world’.
“I think that’s his mentality, and there are good players, top players, and then those ones at the top that are a little bit freakish in terms of their mentality and how they think.
“He’s one of them, where he’s just: I’m the best, I’m the best, I’m the best.”
