{"id":618430,"date":"2026-06-03T06:44:12","date_gmt":"2026-06-03T06:44:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/618430\/"},"modified":"2026-06-03T06:44:12","modified_gmt":"2026-06-03T06:44:12","slug":"andoni-iraola-faces-fiendish-liverpool-task-after-unexplained-mohamed-salah-exit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/618430\/","title":{"rendered":"Andoni Iraola faces fiendish Liverpool task after unexplained Mohamed Salah exit"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mohamed Salah said an emotional farewell to Anfield at the end of the season but there is still an element of mystery about his exit\"liverpoolecho\"<\/p>\n

05:00, 03 Jun 2026<\/p>\n

\"Andoni<\/p>\n

Andoni Iraola is the favourite to become Liverpool’s new head coach (Image: Catherine Ivill – AMA\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

To say things move quickly in football is a cliche but an undeniable truth. This time last year, Arne Slot had been voted the LMA Manager of the Year and Mohamed Salah had been named Footballer of the Year.<\/p>\n

For one of them to last only one more season at Anfield seems unfortunate. For both of them to last only one more season at Anfield seems careless.<\/p>\n

It might be the start of an intriguing new era under a manager who has done well at Bournemouth, but it is still understandable to wonder whether the club is in a better position without its Premier League title-winning manager and without one of its greatest-ever players. Considering the poor end to an average season, Slot\u2019s departure became a little more predictable, if still slightly unexpected.<\/p>\n

And when it happened, there were some suggestions on social media that the Salah departure decision could be reversed. Presumably, most of those suggestions were light-hearted.<\/p>\n

Salah<\/a> has gone. But just over a couple of months after Salah announced his exit<\/a>, there is still a legitimate question to be asked about his departure.<\/p>\n

Why? Why did Liverpool<\/a> agree to let a very good player go for free a year before his contract ended?<\/p>\n

Because the very simple bottom line is that Salah remains a very good player. Better than a lot of players on Liverpool\u2019s books.<\/p>\n

\"Arne<\/p>\n

Arne Slot and Mo Salah have both left Liverpool(Image: Getty)<\/p>\n

Before he was taken out of the final game of his Liverpool career – the 1-1 draw with Brentford – Salah was the best player on the pitch. By his standards, Salah had a disappointing season, but were his ratings in the bottom half when ranking Liverpool\u2019s players? Absolutely not.<\/p>\n

Another way of looking at it is to consider where Salah will play his football next season. It will not be in the Premier League.<\/p>\n

But in the cold light of day, if that scenario were possible, would there be a Premier League team that would not take Salah for a season? I doubt it. And Liverpool had him under contract for another season.<\/p>\n

The club has got him off the wage bill, it could be argued. Fair enough. But it will cost a lot to get someone who can compensate for Salah\u2019s absence. Financially, it doesn\u2019t quite add up.<\/p>\n

\"Mohamed<\/p>\n

Mohamed Salah appears emotional as he applauds the fans following his final appearance for the club(Image: Jack Thomas, Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Of course, it might be that Slot<\/a> was seen as a certainty to stay at the club for a third season and there was no way the two could work together for one more year. But that is where the carelessness comes in. Why not wait until the end of the season before rubber-stamping a parting of the ways?<\/p>\n

Look, it might just have been that Salah wanted to leave regardless of what was going to happen at the end of the season and Liverpool, out of respect for what he has done, were happy to grant him his wish and let him go for free. But it has never been properly explained.<\/p>\n

Anyhow, it has been done and when he takes over, Andoni Iraola will have to find a way of making Liverpool a better team without Salah. And while, as his 34th birthday approaches and the Egyptian\u2019s powers might be waning slightly, that will be a fiendishly tough thing to do.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mohamed Salah said an emotional farewell to Anfield at the end of the season but there is still…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":618431,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[137252,1969,218,134,2227,8934,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-618430","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-andoni-iraola","tag-arne-slot","tag-football","tag-liverpool-fc","tag-mohamed-salah","tag-premium","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/618430","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=618430"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/618430\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/618431"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=618430"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=618430"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=618430"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}