The fact Liverpool are yet to make a formal contract offer to Mo Salah is ‘unbelievable’ to Ally McCoist, who feels the forward was perfectly within his rights to speak out on his future.
Salah’s deal expires at the end of the season and whether he is still a Liverpool player or not next campaign hangs in the balance.
After scoring twice in the Reds’ 3-2 win over Southampton on Sunday, Salah spoke out to reporters on the situation.
‘We are almost in December and I haven’t received an offer to stay at the club yet so I am probably more out than in,’ he said.
‘I’m not going to retire soon. I’m focusing on the season and I’m trying to win the Premier League and hopefully the Champions League as well. I’m disappointed but we will see.’
Liverpool legend Jamie Carragher did not like what he heard from the Egyptian, telling Sky Sports: ‘I must say I am very disappointed with Salah.
‘That interview, Liverpool have got Real Madrid midweek and they’ve got Manchester City at the weekend. That’s the story for Liverpool right now.
‘If he continues to put comments out or his agent keeps putting cryptic tweets out, that’s selfish. That’s thinking about themselves and not the football club.’
McCoist disagrees, though, telling the Liverpool Echo: ‘I don’t have a problem with it, I genuinely don’t.
‘I get where Jamie’s coming from being a Liverpool man, the timing from Liverpool’s point of view might not be ideal. That’s not Salah’s problem.
‘I think the bigger issue is that he hasn’t received a [formal] offer. I find that unbelievable, actually to tell you the truth.
‘Salah was more or less saying “Look, I can’t make this decision because I don’t have a decision to make yet”. I think that’s him being honest. I think he’s been fair.
‘I absolutely don’t have a problem with that. Jamie and some Liverpool fans may not be happy with the timing of it. I get that. But from his point of view, it’s perfect timing.’
Liverpool boss Arne Slot dismissed the idea that Salah is distracted by contract talks, backed up by the fact he has scored 12 goals in 18 games already this campaign.
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‘I don’t think he is distracted at all, I haven’t seen that after the Manchester United game when he made some comments or after a post [on social media] which you told me about, I didn’t see anything today in training,’ Slot said on Tuesday, ahead of Wednesday’s clash with Real Madrid.
‘He’s just fully focused on the game tomorrow and I think these kinds of things are big in the media and with fans but I didn’t see one player talk about it at training, at least while I was there.
‘Players are also focused on the short term and that is Madrid and Manchester City [at the weekend] and by the time Mo’s contract is extended, players don’t look at it that way. We as a club of course do but the players don’t.
‘So I don’t think there are any distractions for him or the players and definitely not for me. I was working yesterday on preparing the team in the best possible way and there was not one time where I thought about sitting here today talking about Mo.’
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