Liverpool legend Jamie Carragher has slammed the Premier League club’s star Mo Salah over the forward’s explosive interview in the mixed zone after the game against Leeds earlier this month. Carragher who is now a high-profile television analyst on platforms like Sky Sports, did not hold back as he discussed Salah’s explosive rant at the club and the Liverpool manager Arne Slot.
“I thought it (Salah’s interview) was a disgrace,” Carragher told Sky Sports. “Some have painted it as an emotional outburst. I don’t think it was. When Mo Salah stops in the mixed zone – which he has done four times in eight years – it is choreographed with him and his agent to cause maximum damage and strengthen his own position.”
Salah’s outburst came after he had been irked at being benched for the third straight game in the middle of a run for Liverpool that included six defeats and two draws in the Premier League which saw them slump to eighth spot in the Premier League standings. Salah had accused the club of “throwing him under the bus”.
Carragher also pointed out that while Salah was one of the best players in the sport at the moment, it was the club that was responsible for his success. Carragher reminded Salah and his agent that before joining Liverpool, the footballer was “known as someone who failed at Chelsea”. The football pundit also took a potshot at Salah saying that he had never won anything with his national Egyptian team, which has a proud track record in the African Cup of Nations.
“He did that (similar interview in the mixed zone) 12 months ago and I called him out on this show about it. He played on the heartstrings of Liverpool supporters. Liverpool were top of the league. He scored the winning goal at Southampton. That was the time to come out and put pressure on the Liverpool ownership. So for the rest of the season you have banners in the crowd. Give Mo’s dough. He’s chosen this weekend to do this now. He’s waited I think for a bad result with Liverpool. Can see the last-minute goal, Liverpool supporters, managers, the manager, everyone involved the club feels like they’re in the gutter at the moment and he’s chosen that time to go for the manager and maybe try and get him sacked. That’s the way I felt about it,” Carragher said.
WATCH: Jamie Carragher slams Liverpool’s Mo Salah
The one line that stands out for me is ‘thrown under the bus’. He’s tried to throw the club under the bus twice in the last 12 months with the situations that I’ve just mentioned. Going after the owners initially, these are owners who’ve been paying him hundreds of thousands of pounds for six years. He’s complained a year ago because they haven’t given him a contract at the age of 32. He’s more than entitled to do that. With the manager right now. He should be doing as much as he can to help the club get out the worst run of results they’ve had since the 1950s and he hasn’t done that. But when I’ve talked about it over the weekend and I’ve put myself in Salah’s position or how I was as a player, I’m not Mo Salah. Mo Salah is a world-renowned player who is famous around the world. Should those players be treated differently? I think they should. I think they should be treated differently and when you think of the players in that bracket over the last eight years, I would say Messi, Ronaldo, Mbappe, I wouldn’t put Salah alongside them, but he’s very close for what he’s done for Liverpool. So a legendary figure and all those players I think get a privilege. Exactly the same one Mo Salah gets at Liverpool: He doesn’t have to defend, he doesn’t have to chase back. So that’s the privilege he has with Liverpool.
“But when we’re talking about throwing people under the bus, he threw the Liverpool right back under the bus for eight years. Can you imagine playing behind him for eight years? But we accept it because he’s a superstar and he scores 250 goals and he’s given me as a Liverpool supporter some of the greatest nights of my life watching him and what he what he’s done and that’s why we accept it. But also then when you think of the ego of these type of players, Ronaldo, Messi, Mbappe, Mo Salah. I think they have a feeling that the success of a football club is down to them. Now, I have no problem with that because I think that drives them on to score more goals and get more success and it benefits Liverpool. It then becomes a problem when you’re in a situation like this. And when Mo Salah’s talking about how many goals he scored: ‘I’ve got more goals than anyone in the Premier League’ or ‘what I did last season’, he’s always speaking about himself. One thing I just want to sort of remind Mo Salah maybe his agent is that before he’d come to Liverpool, Mo Salah was known as the guy who failed at Chelsea. That’s just a fact. He’d never won a major trophy before he came to Liverpool.”
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He’s also the greatest player his country have ever had in Egypt. Egypt in the African Cup of Nations are the most successful nation. He’s going there in a couple of weeks. Mo Salah’s never won the AFCON. That is not me trying to put Mo Salah down as a player. I’ve just said he’s one of the best players in the world in the last eight years. Very few better (than him). But what it tells Mo Salah and his agent is it’s not about an individual. You weren’t a big star before you come to Liverpool. You haven’t really won anything with Egypt anyway. And all that’s telling you is no matter how good a player you are, you need help from your teammates, your manager and fans. And I think that’s really important that he remembers that. And when he’s talking after the game there in the mixedzone, all it’s about is me, me, me.