MO SALAH will no doubt have been sat in Nagrig today thinking Arne Slot got exactly what he deserved.
And many of the players Anfield’s departed Egyptian king left behind may well be thinking the same thing.
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Arne Slot was sacked after Liverpool’s end-of-season review Credit: PA
Mo Salah had a turbulent relationship with the axed Liverpool boss Credit: Getty
After his second searing attack on the Dutchman earlier this month, 17 PLAYERS, including Dominik Szoboszlai, Florian Wirtz, Hugo Ekitike and Alexander Isak ‘liked’ Salah’s social media post that condemned the loss of ‘heavy metal football‘.
Salah was left raging at the Slot machine that so spectacularly malfunctioned – having last December first claimed he had been “thrown under the bus” by Slot after being dumped on the bench at Leeds.
He said: “It is very clear that someone wanted me to get all of the blame” when the Reds were on a run of just two Prem wins in 10 and sat 10th in the table.
Life under the former Feyenoord boss had become too much for a player revered by the fans and who still had a year left of a £400,000-a-week contract.
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And the simmering unrest within the squad became too much for owners Fenway Sports Group after a campaign that turned into one long nightmare and a scramble to make the Champions League.
Slot’s story of woe began when Diogo Jota was tragically killed last July, with Andy Robertson admitting it deeply affected the squad ahead of the season and disrupted the build-up.
Then Salah refused to buy into last summer’s £426million attacking makeover and Slot lost games, and eventually the dressing room, as the Kop turned on him.
He paid the price with his job, but it should come as no surprise after the most spectacular downfall of any manager in Anfield history.
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Slot was celebrating a Premier League title only a year ago Credit: AP
Just a year ago, Slot was on holiday celebrating a Prem title triumph in his first season as Jurgen Klopp’s successor and awaiting the arrival of Jeremie Frimpong as the first £29.5m signing of a record-breaking summer splurge.
Soon Florian Wirtz at £116m would follow and the hits kept on coming – Milos Kerkez for £40m, Hugo Ekitike for £79m and ultimately the most stellar capture of the lot in £130m Alexander Isak.
Yet what seemed like a recipe for more success – domination, even, of English football at least – was already turning into a toxic cocktail.
For Slot went too far, too fast, with his plans to revolutionise the Reds and Salah just was not having it – seeing the planned changes in playing style as an insult to him after eight successive years as the side’s top scorer.
Not only did the former Feyenoord boss mis-read the room in terms of how important Salah was, he failed to understand that the death of Jota alongside brother Andre Silva in a car crash on July 3 last year had shattered the players who adored him.
The aftermath of such a sad affair was not the time to re-invent the side made up mainly of those grieving for the Portuguese star who always had a smile on his face and a goal at the ready.
Slot pressed on and after five games and five wins Liverpool were top of the league but they were flying by the seat of their pants.
The first four of those victories against Bournemouth, Newcastle United, Arsenal and Burnley were all last-gasp affairs and nobody was being fooled.
For the change in style that Salah used as a stick to beat the boss with just before he left to a more measured, possession–based approach, was leaving holes all over the pitch.
Salah was not a believer, nor as the campaign descended into chaos amidst a brutal run of 10 defeats in 13, were the fans who even in Slot’s first season were never convinced by him.
Alexander Isak’s £130m move from Newcastle is yet to catch fire Credit: Getty
Many Liverpool fans had become frustrated with Slot’s brand of football Credit: EPA
They saw that Prem triumph as really belonging to Klopp and what he had built after a Prem win of his own plus 2019 Champions League glory.
Slot was not helped by a series of injuries while Isak arrived unfit after going on strike to get out of Toon, then broke his leg and ankle.
But with Salah now more out than in, as unimpressive as he was sensational when heavy metal was still the mood music in Slot’s debut campaign, the then-title holders completely lost their identity.
Klopp’s successor made excuse after excuse after excuse but the plain facts were that the team were not playing for him, the fans were constantly on his back and the so–called Anfield “family” was a family at war.
Few will miss the 47-year-old who went on social media following news of his sacking to post: “It’s been an amazing ride together with Liverpool, I am so grateful that we were able to win the league last season.”
Yet as the majority of the Kop would tell you, Slot won it with someone else’s team.
The one he tried to build failed dismally, losing 20 games – their most for 33 years – with a manager unable to either cope with the new set-piece mode of Prem football or make his own team better from dead ball situations.
At times he made himself sound like a victim when the reality was that his players were the victims of overpowering grief and that alone, never mind a change in style so hated by Salah, was just too much for them to deal with.
