With Liverpool maintaining that Egyptian wizard Mohamed Salah would be going nowhere during the last summer transfer window, fans would have hoped for a quiet few months before the speculation on the rumour mill ramped up again, but it seems Salah to Saudi Arabia stories are going absolutely nowhere, and manage Jurgen Klopp was again questioned about the future of the player this weekend.
He would have preferred to talk about their 3-1 victory over Wolverhampton Wanderers, but he duly obliged and stated that he had no concerns about the upcoming window, despite Saudi Pro League director of football, Michael Emenalo’s earlier words that the ‘door is not closed’ on further pursuits for the 31 year old.
“You are kidding me, yeah? A week after we close the transfer window, you ask about the January transfer window? Obviously, you can’t wait until December to ask these questions. We will see what happens. Until then, I’m not worried in this moment. I didn’t even think about it until you opened that wound again. No, I’m not worried.”
With this weekends football still to be addressed, Klopp was also asked about former skipper Jordan Henderson’s words the other day where he stated he did not feel wanted by the club prior to making his very controversial move to Saudi Arabian side Al-Ettifaq. Having made 492 appearances for the Anfield outfit having joined them from Sunderland back in 2011, he departed having won seven major trophies, including the Premier League, Champions League, FA Cup and the EFL Cup.
Speaking earlier this month, he said.
“If one of those people (at Liverpool) said to me, ‘we want you to stay’, then we wouldn’t be having this conversation. Now, that’s not to say they forced me out of the club or they were saying they wanted me to leave but at no point did I feel wanted by the club or anyone to stay.”
Far from contradicting his words, Klopp simply clarified them a little, as there were some caveats to his words.
“I read it after I heard about it. ‘Hendo’ said the truth in all departments. We had our talks. I told ‘Hendo’ I wanted him to stay but I had to talk in these conversations about the possibility of him not playing regularly. If ‘Hendo’ would have performed, he would have had maybe 50 games. Absolutely fine and possible. The relationship we had, I thought it was important that we speak about everything, and that means ‘what happens if…’.”
Klopp added.
“‘Hendo’ is fantastic player, I will love him forever and he is a super guy but he is not great when he is not playing. He was my captain and I said I wanted to talk about it now because I didn’t want to wake up one morning and we were locking horns because he thought he would be starting and I was telling him he would not be. In Hendo’s ear and mind that came out as ‘he doesn’t want me here’. What he said is that if I would’ve told him, ‘Hendo, stay here, you will be the main man in midfield’ and stuff like this he would have stayed. That’s the truth – but I couldn’t say that. As much as I wanted him to stay, I couldn’t say that and that’s why it is better ‘Hendo’ moved on. There’s not a bit of bad blood or whatever.”
Just one of those things ultimately.