Jurgen Klopp has insisted that Mohamed Salah is staying at Liverpool as Dominik Szoboszlai revealed the Egyptian had told his teammates he wants to remain at Anfield rather than accept a lucrative move to Saudi Arabia.
Liverpool rejected a £150m bid from Al-Ittihad for Salah this week, but while there has been the prospect the 31-year-old could become the world’s best-paid player, Klopp said he never questioned his commitment to the Merseyside club.
The Saudi transfer window remains open but Klopp is adamant that Liverpool’s position remains the same and that Salah is not for sale
Klopp said: “I never had any doubt about his commitment to this club. You can’t imagine how much fuss the world has made but how calm we are with it. He is our player and wants to play here.”
The German said that Salah has not told him he is not going, but that he does not need to and that it is apparent in his actions.
“He didn’t tell me, but he didn’t have to,” he added. “He speaks with his training and performances and behaviour. We had meetings this week, and the meetings were not about what we did in the past, it was about what we will do in the future.
“Mo was with the players’ [leadership] committee and had his moments where he was talking and it was nothing like ‘by the way, this is only until next week’ or whatever. Mo doesn’t have to come into my office and tell me, ‘By the way, boss... [I’m not going]’. For me it wasn’t a subject for one second, to be honest, besides the questions [from the outside]. Nobody [at the club] came to me and told me something could happen or whatever, on Friday nothing. I’m pretty sure I would have got a call but I didn’t.”
Salah shone against Aston Villa— (REUTERS)
Klopp felt Salah’s performance in the 3-0 win over Aston Villa, when he scored and set up several opportunities for Darwin Nunez, showed his loyalty to Liverpool.
He added: “Mo didn’t look for a second like he thought about anything else other than about Aston Villa. Being involved in all the goals, he has unbelievable numbers but it’s not a surprise that he has the numbers. And he had chances on top of that, and involved in creating and setting up and all these kind of things. He’s a world-class player, no doubt about that. And I’m really pleased he is in my team.”
Midfielder Szoboszlai, who scored his first Liverpool goal against Villa, is also convinced that Salah wants to remain at Anfield.
The Hungarian said: “You know it is football, everyone is talking. We are really happy that he has stayed. We are of course speaking between each other but he wants to stay, he wants to be here and be with us. We are really happy. We need people in the team like him.”
