Arne Slot’s parting shot at Mohamed Salah reeks of the man-management rotting Anfield from within

Last Updated on 9 May 2026

With Mohamed Salah in the final weeks of a nine-year Anfield career, injured, emotional, and heading for the exit, Arne Slot used his pre-match press conference this week not to wish him well, but to take aim.

There’s something deeply telling about a manager who can’t let a legend leave quietly.

It wasn’t subtle, it wasn’t necessary, and for a growing number of Liverpool supporters, it wasn’t surprising.

‘The standards are not only important in the gym’: Arne Slot’s dig at Mohamed Salah

The context matters. Speaking earlier this week, Salah voiced concerns about the mentality within the current Liverpool squad, saying: “You need people to come early to the gym and people look at them, ‘Oh he go to the gym, so I need to go.'”

It was the kind of remark you’d expect from a man who has spent a career setting standards, a farewell plea, not a political statement. Slot, however, saw it differently. The Telegraph’s Dominic King via This is Anfield described Slot as being “clearly affronted by this topic”.

The Times’ Paul Joyce noted he “gripped the top of the chair he was standing over, his fingers digging into the fabric, and tried to bite his lip.” What followed was a line that will linger long after Salah has left the building.

“The standards are not only important in the gym. It’s also on the pitch, OK? You understand me? Without me saying anything?” That last phrase, without me saying anything, is doing a lot of work.

It’s a wink-and-nudge designed to imply Salah’s on-pitch output hasn’t matched his gym evangelism, without the intellectual honesty of just saying so plainly. It’d be fair to claim that Salah’s form has declined significantly over the past year.

However, his status as one of Liverpool’s greatest-ever players is beyond question, and it’s a shame that Slot has aimed a tasteless dig at the legendary winger so close to what will be an emotional Anfield farewell.

Arne Slot’s poor man-management is leading to major discontent at Anfield

This wasn’t an isolated slip from Arne Slot. It’s a pattern, and the fingerprints of poor man-management are all over Liverpool’s fractured dressing room. Salah said his relationship with Slot had deteriorated, that doesn’t happen at a well-run club.

Andy Robertson, a vice-captain and decade-long servant, will leave as a free agent this summer. Low on ceremony. High on the sense that Slot had already moved on. Curtis Jones tells a quieter but no less damning story, either.

He started only 16 of Liverpool’s 36 league games this season and explored a move away in January. Inter Milan remain keen, and multiple clubs are tracking him. A homegrown talent, adored by the Kop, is eyeing the exit. That’s on the manager. Then there’s Alisson.

Slot has refused to rule out a summer departure for the goalkeeper amid interest from Juventus. Even Virgil van Dijk stated that “there is a lot of work to be done behind the scenes.” When the captain breaks his silence, you listen. And, clearly, Slot is not in control.