Inside Mohamed Salah's Liverpool exit with private apology and £21m salary decision

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Mohamed Salah is set to leave Liverpool at the end of the season. This was merely six weeks after he and his brother, Andre Silva, died in a car accident in Northern Spain while travelling back to the UK to commence pre-season training.And while it might be excessive to attribute everything that ensued for Salah during a period of upheaval around the sudden and shocking loss of his close friend, Jota's absence cannot be overlooked as a contributing element for why the third highest goalscorer in Liverpool's history believes his time is finally up at Anfield."I never thought there would be something that would frighten me going back to Liverpool after the break," Salah wrote in July alongside a grey-scale image of him celebrating with Jota on the pitch."Team-mates come and go but not like this.

It's going to be extremely difficult to accept that Diogo won't be there when we go back."At a time when Liverpool were embarking on the biggest spending summer in their history - around £440m - to land marquee attacking names like Florian Wirtz and Alexander Isak and the emerging Hugo Ekitike, it wouldn't have taken much for the 33-year-old to picture a Liverpool attack that no longer required him.The post-Salah blueprint had evidently been set in motion at the very highest levels of the club, despite the Egyptian penning a two-year deal just a few months prior.And when performances faltered, productivity declined and the scrutiny mounted during a torrid run of nine defeats in 12 matches between September and November, Salah found himself relegated to the bench - a situation he had never meaningfully encountered before at Liverpool.At a ground where Salah once declared "there will be fire if I speak today" following a very public confrontation with Jurgen Klopp, there was considerable internal anxiety, once the team sheet dropped, that he might seek to cause a stir after the match at West Ham United.A spot on the nine-man bench, however, went by without drama as goals from Isak and Cody Gakpo ensured one of the campaign's more straightforward victories. Salah's explosive tirade in an unremarkable doorway at Elland Road is now regarded by many as the trigger for the decision to depart.Following consecutive draws with Sunderland and Leeds, Salah unleashed a remarkable attack on the head coach and other unnamed figures at the club, accusing them of throwing him under the bus.As the defeats mounted up, Salah's lack of defensive contribution was perceived as something that needed to change and as the Reds boss pursued more stability, the No.11 was considered expendable until the ship was steadied.When Salah penned his two-year extension following a season where he scored 29 goals and 18 league assists, the former Roma winger believed his career would conclude at Anfield.Barely six months into that deal, Salah's future suddenly appeared so much more uncertain."Somehow it will end but the thing in my head is like why it should end this way?" Salah said at the time."Because I am too fit, just five months ago I was just winning every individual award so why should it go this direction?

Salah maintained he was entirely justified in voicing his frustration at being dropped, given his outstanding contribution to the club.An uneasy truce was reached behind closed doors with Slot after being left behind for the victory at Inter in the Champions League.While he began his final match before the Africa Cup of Nations on the bench against Brighton, a first-half injury to Joe Gomez allowed Salah to swiftly return to the starting line-up as the Reds triumphed 2-0.At the time, nobody knew whether that would be Salah's final Anfield outing, as a month-long absence for AFCON raised considerable questions with the transfer window open.Despite the situation settling down, it's understood Slot privately felt vindicated by his choice to leave Salah out of the side, believing it rendered his team more disciplined without the ball.Despite the turbulence, Liverpool received no enquiries for Salah during the January window. Those funds can be reinvested into the playing squad when they inevitably move to replace him.There's equally a sense of dignity in allowing Salah to leave on his own terms, given the bond that exists.While the official video posted on social media last Tuesday was an in-house production with the Egyptian's camp, it's understood the club worked alongside their No.11 to a degree, offering the services of Steven Halliwell, who filmed the video and captured the images of Salah beside his impressive trophy cabinet at his Cheshire home.Salah's exit from Liverpool is far more amicable than it perhaps seems on the surface, and a considerable degree of mutual respect will always remain between club and player.It has been an enormously rewarding partnership across the majority of the last decade, one that has produced too much to unravel beyond redemption so swiftly.Yet there is no escaping the fact that this was not how it was supposed to end for one of the club's greatest ever players.