'I'm sure the agent' - Neil Warnock makes Mo Salah agent claim as Liverpool return decision made

Neil Warnock has suggested that Arne Slot could have handled Mo Salah’s situation better before the Liverpool winger’s bombshell interview.

Salah claimed that he had been ‘thrown under a bus’ and that ‘someone doesn’t want me’ at the club after the Reds’ 3-3 draw at Leeds United last weekend. Having started three successive matches on the bench, he also claimed that he no longer had a relationship with Liverpool head coach Slot.

As a result, Salah was omitted from the Reds’ squad for the 1-0 win over Inter Milan in the Champions League earlier this week. On the eve of the Premier League fixture against Brighton, Liverpool have decided to recall him for Saturday’s clash against Brighton at Anfield. It will be a brief return as he heads off to represent Egypt at the African Cup of Nations next week.

Salah fired 34 goals and recorded 23 assists in all competitions last season to spearhead Liverpool’s Premier League title triumph. His form has dipped markedly this term, with the Reds’ defence of the English championship over before Christmas as they trail leaders Arsenal by 10 points.

Speaking on talkSPORT, Warnock mooted that Slot should have held deeper talks with Salah before the Leeds game. But the veteran former Sheffield United, Crystal Palace and QPR boss feels that Salah’s agent, Ramy Abbas Issa, will have been the one who told his client to speak to the media.

What’s been said

“I think the manager made a mistake in the first place and should have sussed this out,” said Warnock. “Salah was on the bench for a couple of games before last week. It must have been bubbling. You don’t keep a lad like Salah, who won them everything last year, on the bench without telling him why. If you want him, you don’t put him out to pasture then the agent, I’m sure the agent then, will have got on board. ‘Mo, he’s not played you for two games, you’re not playing, blah blah blah, you’ve got to go to the press’. He doesn’t [usually’ go to the press but all of a sudden he does that a week before he goes to Egypt. It’s too much for me, this.

“I feel sorry for Mo because what he did for Liverpool last year was unbelievable and he's going to taint it all now. They're going to say he's finishing on a low, he's done this, that and the other. It's his fault but three games... they should have both got together. He should have stopped it straight away before it got to the agent. I'm sure the agent has got into Mo about: 'You should be doing this, you should be doing that'. He should have stopped that from happening but it doesn't sound like he's had a chat with him for the two games he's left him out.

“I think because he didn't go in and speak to two games and left him rotting, it's obvious they have not spoken, it's driven it on. Almost Liverpool [have thought}: 'Is it time to get some money for him, is it time to get a good transfer fee now? Everybody will blame Mo, we'll come out of it smelling of roses'. I think the manager is wrong for not talking to him a lot more if he wants him.

“You look at the players who have left. When you play in a wide position like him, you do rely on a lot of other players to give you the ball in the right areas. They haven't had the ball in the right areas. He's never done it [defensive work] in his career. I still think he could have sorted it out better than what he's done.”

What Slot said on Salah talks

Slot insisted in his pre-Brighton press conference that Liverpool have held talks with Salah and his representatives before the Leeds encounter. “We've spoken a lot in the last week after the Sunderland game,” said the Anfield supremo. “I think there have been a lot of conversations between his representatives and ours, our representatives and him, between him and me after the Sunderland game – and today I will speak to him again.”