Mohamed Salah and Liverpool's Power Struggle
The season that was meant to be a celebration of Liverpool’s 20th league title defence has turned into something far uglier. Results have collapsed, the football has gone flat, and the club’s greatest modern goalscorer is now at the centre of a power struggle that cuts right through Anfield.
Mohamed Salah was supposed to be on his way. One more year left on his contract, a free transfer lined up for the summer, and a clean break agreed in principle between player and club after a dismal 2025/26 campaign. That was the story.
It might not be anymore.
Salah’s U-turn – but on his terms
According to The Athletic, Salah has quietly opened the door to staying at Liverpool. Not wide. Just enough to make the hierarchy uncomfortable.
The conditions are stark. For Salah to even consider remaining, there would need to be what the report calls a “regime change” at the club. That starts with head coach Arne Slot. It does not end there.
Some of Salah’s associates in Egypt, the report says, have been suggesting he has not completely abandoned the idea of extending his Liverpool story, despite recent announcements about a summer exit. But that possibility is tied directly to the removal of Slot and the senior directors who back him – figures whose own contracts, like Salah’s, are due to expire in a year.
This is not a minor disagreement over tactics. It is an open challenge to the current football structure.
From icons to antagonists
The breakdown has been visible for weeks.
Salah’s form, like that of much of Liverpool’s squad, has fallen off a cliff compared to last season. The goals have dried up, the sharpness has dulled, and the aura has faded. Slot, meanwhile, has been hammered for what many see as cautious, uninspired football and a record that includes 20 defeats in all competitions.
The tension between the two has spilled into public view. Salah reacted badly to slipping down the pecking order earlier in the campaign, and the announcement that he would leave on a free this summer looked, at the time, like a release valve for a relationship that had run its course.
Instead, the pressure has only increased.
Over the weekend, the forward openly criticised Slot’s playing style and called for a return to Liverpool’s “heavy metal attacking football” – a clear reference to the high-octane era that defined the club at its recent peak. It was not just a tactical gripe. It was a direct swipe at the identity of Slot’s Liverpool.
A club split on its next move
All parties had initially concluded that a summer exit for Salah was the cleanest solution. One year left, no fee, a graceful goodbye after a legendary spell at Anfield.
Now, that neat narrative has been shredded.
The Athletic’s report lays out a scenario in which Salah’s future is effectively tied to the fate of Slot and the directors who support him. Keep the current regime, and Salah walks. Change the regime, and he might stay.
It is a brutal equation for Fenway Sports Group to consider. Keep faith with the head coach and the structure they installed, or side with the club’s most iconic player of the modern era and rip it up.
Conflicting signals from above
To complicate matters, there are already mixed messages about Slot’s position.
On Monday morning, TEAMtalk reported that FSG had started to rethink Slot’s future, with Salah’s outburst after Friday’s defeat to Aston Villa described as the trigger for a possible U-turn. Four potential replacements, the report claimed, are under consideration.
Yet transfer specialist Fabrizio Romano painted a very different picture.
“They want to support Arne Slot, believe in Arne Slot,” he said on his YouTube channel, underlining that, from the ownership’s perspective, this disastrous season has not yet pushed them into the arms of another coach.
Romano pointed to a campaign defined by poor results, bad performances and 20 defeats, acknowledging how complicated and damaging it has been. But he stressed one key point: up to this weekend, Liverpool had not contacted any other manager. Not Xabi Alonso. Not anyone.
“At the moment, Liverpool didn’t call Xabi Alonso because they believe in Arne Slot,” Romano said.
That belief now sits directly opposite Salah’s conditions for a U-turn of his own.
Anfield at a crossroads
So Liverpool stand here: a failing season, a manager under heavy fire, a dressing room icon demanding change, and owners trying to hold the line.
Salah’s stance forces the issue. If he is serious about staying only under a new regime, FSG must decide what – and who – defines Liverpool’s future. The system they have built, or the superstar who helped deliver their recent glory.
Something has to give. The only question is whether it will be the coach, the structure, or the club’s greatest modern goalscorer walking out of Anfield for the last time.
