{"id":237290,"date":"2026-01-17T01:52:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-17T01:52:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/237290\/"},"modified":"2026-01-17T01:52:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-17T01:52:09","slug":"arne-slot-coy-on-salah-talks-reveals-return-date-as-liverpool-hero-not-very-good-for-egypt-at-afcon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/237290\/","title":{"rendered":"Arne Slot coy on Salah talks; reveals return date as Liverpool hero &#8216;not very good&#8217; for Egypt at AFCON"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Liverpool boss Arne Slot kept his cards close to his chest when asked about talks with Mohamed Salah ahead of his return from AFCON.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.football365.com\/tag\/mohamed-salah\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Salah<\/a> is set to fly back to Merseyside following Egypt\u2019s semi-final defeat by Senegal, where his former team-mate Sadio Mane notched the winner in Tangier.<\/p>\n<p>The Egyptian hero\u2019s Liverpool future was up in the air when he left for the tournament after he claimed the club had \u201cthrown me under the bus\u201d following the Reds\u2019 draw with Leeds, adding that he and Slot had \u201cno relationship\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>READ: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.football365.com\/news\/keane-slammed-bitterness-carrick-feud-neville-failed-manager\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Mailbox:\u00a0Keane \u2018bitterness\u2019 clear with Neville \u2018nodding along\u2019 at fellow failed manager who is \u2018furious by default\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Salah came on as a second-half substitute against Brighton before leaving in December, but his return to Anfield has been eagerly awaited as he looks to force his way back into Slot\u2019s first team.<\/p>\n<p>On Salah\u2019s return, Slot said in his press conference on Friday: \u201cFirst of all, he plays a big game for Egypt on Saturday [in the third-place play-off vs Nigeria] and then he comes back to us.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI am happy he comes back. Mo has been so important for this club and me, so I am happy he is back. Even if I had 15 attackers, I would be happy to see Mo back but that is not our situation.<\/p>\n<p>READ:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.football365.com\/news\/premier-league-preview-manchester-united-man-city-wolves-watkins-dyche-real-madrid\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Big Weekend: Man United v Man City, Wolves, Watkins, Dyche, Real Madrid<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u201cNext week [Salah will return], we are in talks with him and what is expected of him over there and over here. He has an important game on Saturday and then he will be back with us.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are talking together about [the Marseille game] now.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Asked whether he had spoken to Salah, Slot added: \u201cWhat happens with Mo and me on our phone or over here stays with us two. I don\u2019t share it is necessary for me to share the details of the private conversations I have either on phone or here with any of my players.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Paul Merson doesn\u2019t expect Salah to return to his peak having watched his \u201cnot very good\u201d performances for Egypt at AFCON, despite his four goals and an assist.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe real fun starts again when Mohamed Salah returns from the AFCON!\u201d Merson told Sportskeeda. \u201cDoes he go straight back into the XI? If I\u2019m being honest, I don\u2019t think Salah was very good at the AFCON. Them days where he gets goals out of nothing are gone!<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI don\u2019t think Salah even gave his opponents\u2019 full-back a hard time at the AFCON. I just don\u2019t see him being that guy anymore. So it will be interesting to see if Liverpool feel the same way.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>READ NEXT:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.football365.com\/news\/jurgen-klopp-real-madrid-terrible-idea-opinion\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Jurgen Klopp to Real Madrid is a terrible but intoxicating idea<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Liverpool boss Arne Slot kept his cards close to his chest when asked about talks with Mohamed Salah&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":237291,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[140071,69183,52167,114960,111,43,139,69,23262,213,24121],"class_list":["post-237290","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-arne-slot","tag-front-page","tag-liverpool","tag-mohamed-salah","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-premier-league","tag-sports","tag-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237290","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=237290"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237290\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/237291"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=237290"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=237290"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=237290"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}