Jurgen Klopp said he did not fear <a href="https://www.thenationalnews.com/tags/mohamed-salah/" target="_blank">Mohamed Salah's</a> recent comments about Liverpool's failure to play Champions League football next season was an indication he wanted out of the club. Salah said he was “devastated” at <a href="https://www.thenationalnews.com/tags/liverpool" target="_blank">Liverpool</a> missing out on Champions League qualification following Manchester United's win over Chelsea on Thursday, adding there was “absolutely no excuse” for the Reds finishing in the Premier League’s top four. Asked whether he was concerned about Salah’s immediate future after his rare public statement, Klopp said: “No worries, no. I only heard what he said but I couldn’t read anything that could lead in that direction. “Obviously Mo loves being here and Mo was part of it. He said apologies for what ‘we’ did – not apologies for ‘what the other guys did, but I had to go with them’. It is all fine." Liverpool made Egyptian forward Salah the highest-paid player in the club's history last summer, with the 30-year-old committing his future on Merseyside until June 2025. Signed from Roma in 2017, Salah has played <a href="https://www.thenationalnews.com/tags/champions-league/" target="_blank">Champions League</a> football in each of his six seasons at Liverpool but will have to settle for the Europa League next term after finishing the Premier league season in fifth, even before Sunday's final game against Southampton. Salah has contributed 19 goals and 11 assists. Klopp said failure to qualify for the Champions League has not promoted Salah to ask for a move away, and that if he – or any player – did so he would "drive him to the other club myself". “I would take the key, [and say] ‘come in the car, where do you want to go, I drive you’. “It is not the case with Mo, not at all, and nobody else told me. They ask if they can have a longer holiday or whatever – but nobody asks me if after the holiday they have to come back. “So that was not in our conversation. “I saw him now in the canteen and he was smiling. I don’t know for which reason as I didn’t ask him, but he is not in a bad mood. That’s it. “We didn’t point fingers at each other. That’s all good. If you don’t qualify for the Champions League, the best place you can possibly end up is fifth, so that’s what we did.” With no Champions League football on offer, Klopp hopes that potential signings will not be put off moving to Anfield. “I don’t think so but we will see. That is obviously possible, it’s always possible things don’t go as quick as you want. It’s not only possible, it is probably likely," said the German. “The better the players you want the lesser is the desire of the other club to let him go and that’s exactly what we are prepared for. “But it’s a long window and a long pre-season and a long break in-between so we have time. If we get in players tomorrow or in six or seven weeks it is not a game-changer for me to be honest. “In an ideal world they all sign tomorrow and I can tell them when to be here and we can start giving them the plans for the summer break but that will not likely happen.”
