Michail Antonio ‘reveals what Jurgen Klopp told Mo Salah’ in furious touchline spat vs West Ham
WEST HAM star Michail Antonio has had his say on what words were exchanged between Jurgen Klopp and Mohamed Salah during their heated argument last weekend.
Klopp, 56, and Salah, 31, become engaged in a tetchy touchline row as the Liverpool ace was substituted on against West Ham, with Darwin Nunez having to separate them.
SunSport reported earlier this week that the bust-up had been caused by a handshake snub by Salah.
A source explained: “This has happened occasionally with Jurgen and other players.
“He is very big on interaction with his subs before they go on and felt it didn’t happen at first with Mo.
“Mo was obviously annoyed at being left out of the team and wasn’t in the best of moods while Jurgen wasn’t happy with his behaviour.”
And now Hammers ace Antonio, who scored his sixth goal of the season against the Reds to help earn a 2-2 draw, has added more detail to the interaction.
Speaking on the Footballer’s Football Podcast, the 34-year-old said: “Basically – this is not inside information, nobody has told me anything.
“But what I have heard is what the boys have been talking about on the training ground.
“As the (Liverpool) players come on, Klopp always gives them a big hug and says ‘good luck’, but when Mo came on he walked in a different direction and was doing his shinpads and stuff like that.
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“Klopp has put his hand out to him and his hand was there for a bit and as Mo stopped doing what he was doing, he just slapped his (Klopp’s) hand as a high five.
“Obviously Klopp didn’t like that and he was like, ‘do you want to sit back down?’, basically saying, ‘do you want to go on?’. And nobody has told me what Mo said back.”
Klopp, who announced he would be leaving Liverpool at the end of the season, played down the rift after the game, saying: “We spoke about it in the dressing room, but it’s done for me. That’s it.”
However, Salah stoked the flames with a cryptic answer of: “There’s going to be fire today if I speak,” when in the mixed zone.
Regardless, it is an event Antonio believes is simply part-and-parcel of the beautiful game when tensions are high.
He added: “It’s one of those things because they (Liverpool) are not performing it’s going to be amplified.
“Knowing who they are and how well they’ve done this season and basically the title could be drifting away from them, tensions are going to be high.
Five Mo Salah strops at Liverpool
Five times things have got heated during Mo Salah's Liverpool career.
West Ham 2 Liverpool 2 – April 28, 2024
Salah gets into a heated argument with Klopp as he refuses to shake the manager’s hand before coming on at the London Stadium.
Liverpool 3 Sheffield United 1 – April 4, 2024
Salah shakes his head as he is subbed off during Liverpool’s 3-1 win over the basement club.
Chelsea 1 Liverpool 1 – August 13, 2023
Salah storms off the pitch after being replaced on 77 minutes on the first day of the season.
Brighton 1 Liverpool 1 – November 28, 2020
Salah throws his arms up in the air and barely looks at Klopp after being subbed off. Brighton go on to equalise with a last minute penalty.
Burnley 0 Liverpool 3 – August 31, 2019
Salah gets in a public spat with Sadio Mane after failing to pass to the winger. Team-mate Roberto Firmino says the row had been brewing for some time.
“There is going to be a lot of frustration and I feel like they are only human so these things are bound to happen.”
The draw effectively destroyed any lingering hope Liverpool had of landing their second Premier League title under Klopp.
After the weekends action, which saw Arsenal and Manchester City both win, the Reds are five points behind the Gunners at the top of the table.
Defending champions Man City are one point behind Arsenal with a game in hand.
Klopp has botched his Liverpool exit… and it’s cost him his legacy, says Dave Kidd
By Dave Kidd
NOW we know Jurgen Klopp’s final major trophy haul at Liverpool — one Champions League, one Premier League, one FA Cup, two League Cups and (if you must) a World Club Cup.
But where does his reign stand among the greatest of the Premier League era?
In black-and-white terms, Klopp is way behind Sir Alex Ferguson and Pep Guardiola, the only two men to have won multiple Premier Leagues and a Champions League at the same club.
Those two sit alongside Brian Clough, Bob Paisley and Sir Matt Busby as the undoubted all-time managerial greats of the English game.
But Klopp ranks in the next tier down — with Arsene Wenger, Jose Mourinho (the Chelsea version), Bill Shankly and Don Revie.
These were all men with the strength of character to transform their clubs in their own image and enjoy success but who did not win as much as they might have done.
Had Klopp managed to keep his intentions under wraps and ended up with another title, perhaps even a treble or quadruple, he’d have edged himself up into that highest echelon with Ferguson, Guardiola, Clough, Paisley and Busby.
But deciding the timing and the manner of your exit is one of the toughest calls for any manager or sportsman.
Klopp got it wrong.
Read Dave Kidd’s take on Klopp’s demise in full here.
Or click here to check out all of Dave Kidd’s articles.