Mo Salah is no Luis Suarez; the Liverpool fan verdict is in

The reaction to Mo Salah’s exit goes on and now Liverpool fans are saying that he is not in the same class as Luis Suarez.

Send your mails to theeditor@football365.com

The best of Liverpool?

If we are going down that route here’s my quick two penneth.

Greatest Liverpool player? Kenny Dalglish. Always will be.

Best Liverpool player (it’s a different thing imo – it’s about overall ability) – in this order – Luis Suarez, Steven Gerrard, Mo Salah.
Shunt – LFC

…Minty, LFC wrote in to the Mailbox, saying “I think I can say with some confidence Mo is the best I’ve ever seen play.” This makes me wonder, did Minty choose not to watch Luis Suarez? Or did he forget Luis Suarez? Or has he somehow truly concluded that Luis Suarez was not a better player than Mohammed Salah?

Cards on the table, I have always appreciated – but never loved – Mo Salah. There has not been a single moment in the last 9 years when I would have picked him as my favorite Liverpool player. Last season is the only one where I would have picked him as the best/most important player in the team, either because I am very much a Sadio Mané man, or because I considered Virgil and Allison more fundamentally irreplaceable than Salah.

But I can acknowledge that all of that is just my own ‘left-field’ opinion. What I cannot wrap my head around is that anyone with two eyes and a brain would say that Luis Suarez was not a better player than Mohammed Salah.
Oliver Dziggel, Geneva Switzerland

…For me, Salah doesn’t belong in the same category as Henry or Shearer.

And that’s because he lacks the mantle to which both these guys can lay claim.

I love Liverpool. It’s one of my favourite cities in the whole of the country. The people are among the friendliest I have ever encountered. And the first time I visited I had a fantastic time. There was one element however, that really capped off my trip.

As I was waiting for my train to pull out of Liverpool Lime Street, I looked out of the window and saw a figure walking up the platform.

The figure was immediately recognisable as the greatest striker I ever saw play for Liverpool.

It was Liverpool’s record goalscorer Ian Rush.

Salah is good, but no one, NOONE comes close to Rushy, and I say that as a gooner.
Graham Simons, Gooner, Norf London

…RHT/TS x (just because you put a kiss after being awful doesn’t make you nice). Oh goody, we get to hear a weekly running commentary from rival fans – who have spent the entire season saying how shite Salah is – about how irreplaceable he is.

To us, and normal football fans, he has been brilliant and is one of the Prem’s greatest players, so of course we’ll miss him. I still miss Gerrard. I still miss Bobby.

But we’ve won the title since those two legends left and we’ll win it again after Mo has departed with our love, eternal thanks and best wishes. Why is it so hard to understand and why all the snark?

And please explain how the man who helped stop City 115 turning the Prem into a farmer’s league (and lifted every trophy there is to win) is a ‘lanky chancer’. You are one weird individual . . .
Jo (Top 3 of King Kenny/Stevie G/Egyptian King) living in Mo’s world

Ask a Man Utd fan…

Laughed out loud at the headline “Has Mo Salah usurped Stevie G as the best Liverpool fans have ever seen?”.

It’s not even close. It’s like comparing apples to a pebble. Mo Salah has had 100x more impact at Liverpool than Gerrard. Stop it now with this nonsense. This comes from a United fan who dislikes Salah for all he has done to us.

Cheers.
Aman

How is Salah different to Trent?

To all Liverpool fans, I would like to see the same bad energy given to Salah as it was given to Trent. It seems one can be given bad press while the other revels in the adoration of his own selfishness, by announcing two months before the season ends he’s leaving on a free, with a year left.

Some Liverpool fans will say “but it’s Salah he’s allowed to leave on a free” – as if he’s being held hostage by LFC. It truly shows how fickle you lot are.
Leo

…Nice work by the Mailbox Compiler this morning, giving RHT’s “here come the mawkish LFC reactions” top billing before following up with a few examples of said reactions.

In the space of 5 minutes of reading I saw Mo Salah hailed as Liverpool’s Greatest Player Of The Last 35 Years, a singular force for Muslim awareness across the country, and akin to a much-loved dog. Mentions of charity work too, which are always nice to read. Fair play on that count.

But isn’t this the same guy who used the media to manipulate the club into giving him a gigantic contract extension last season, before proceeding to regress alarmingly and then throwing his toys out of the pram via a hissy fit-shaped nuke as he was pissing off to AFCON last winter? Did I imagine all of that?

Glorify his past achievements on the pitch all you want, he fully earned the kudos for his output and success. But that announcement last night just crystallises the scale of Salah’s fall from grace. Cancelling the final year of his contract is an admission that his current status doesn’t justify either his wages or any fee Liverpool might have hoped to secure. More bad decision-making coming home to roost.

It all has a whiff of the end of Ronaldo’s second spell at United, albeit less explosive and thankfully not involving that fuckwit Piers Morgan. A legendary player whose efforts to fight the dying of the light became a bit embarrassing before everyone decided it was best if they were nudged off the stage.

One other aspect to this situation is that it creates a sideshow that will follow Liverpool for the remainder of the season. Similar to the mess with Alexander-Arnold last year, Salah’s every move now becomes an inbuilt point of focus. Time will tell what impact it may have, but you’d understand if Slot now uses the opportunity to bench him and limit his time to cameo appearances. Liverpool need results more than he needs a lap of honour.
Keith Reilly

Salah one of the best in Premier League

With the announcement that Salah is leaving Liverpool I’d hope despite a much more down than up season you’ll get plenty of mails from Liverpool fans praising just how good Salah has been for them. From an Arsenal fan I’d put him right up there as maybe one of the top 3 players to play in the Premier League. Naturally goal-scorers and attacking players rank more highly than defenders because the hardest thing is putting the ball in the back of the net, and Salah did it consistently…and a lot. He was the absolute talisman through Liverpool’s golden period and I’m sure all Liverpool’s rivals will be glad to see the back of him.

I’m an Arsenal fan so naturally I’m still putting Thierry Henry above Salah, their stats are comparable but I just think Henry is a better footballer, technically and for me was capable of more spectacular and varied goals and moments of skill.

But, Salah – phenomenal Premier League great, literally from the moment he stepped on the pitch for Liverpool. Good luck replacing him.
Rich, AFC

…I don’t tend to write in to sports websites much but the response to Salah leaving Liverpool is so bitter and churlish from your usual bitter and churlish “contributors” has me doing a little research, just so there can be little doubt about the points I am going to make.

Salah has dropped off this season, and the pace and physical nature of the premiership is too much for him at this stage of his career. It was worth the gamble to extend his contract though, bearing in mind that the decision was made, like all decisions, without hindsight. We lose him on a free this June instead of last June. The only alternative to this story was to sell him to some club in the Middle East the previous season for a king’s ransom, but had we done that, we wouldn’t have won the league last year.

Salah has played, so far, 323 games in the league, scoring 191 goals, contributing 94 assists, meaning a goal contribution every 92.9 minutes. He won seven major trophies at Liverpool.

Thierry Henry, a player that only an idiot would argue is not one of the greatest players to grace the modern English game, comes in a 258 games, 175 goals, 79 assists, GC every 84 minutes. He won 5 major trophies in England, most of them FA Cups. He also played for a team that was already challenging regularly for the league when he joined them, with their longest serving manager at the reigns. Wenger’s Arsenal were arguably peaking when he joined them (Invincible season was 2003-4).

The only two players with greater goal contributions played, pretty much, their entire careers in England (Rooney did have an American swansong) – Shearer and Rooney, and they were out and out strikers (although Rooney did drop deeper later in his career), and even then, their minutes per contribution were at a far higher figure than Salah.

Who was the best? It doesn’t really matter, everyone will have an opinion.

But does Salah deserve to be spoken of as one of the best? Without any doubt at all, unless you are the prize plum amongst prize plums.

The time is right for Salah to go, everyone knows it, but it’s been a privilege having him play for Liverpool. And yes, there will be an emotional send off, and yes, the bitter and churlish residents here will hate it.

Good.
Max Bedroom

On Ipswich naivety, a Salah replacement and more

I have some sympathy for Ipswich with regards to Farage turning up for a publicity shoot, if reports are true that they didn’t know that he would be there and use it to his advantage as a PR opportunity. But surely they have been extremely naive here, not anticipating that slimy people like him are going to pull slimy, unannounced stunts like this.

Hopefully the rest of football takes notice, and refuse any bookings from Reform (or any other party for that matter) unless it is an official request from Government or opposition, relating to some specific policy or whatever.

It got me wondering whether they could sue for false representation or something, as the photos etc released by Reform make it look like an ‘endorsement’, but if Ipswich deny this, and knew nothing about it perhaps they have a case? I’m not a legal person, so will happily stand corrected about this.

Moving on to Salah, firstly he is an LFC legend, and a Premier League all time great. It might have gone a bit sour this season, but I am sure, over time this will largely be forgotten given his overall terrific contribution.

In terms of a replacement, who really knows but I think we can forget Michael Olise. Bayern don’t wan’t to sell him which probably would make a deal here a) practically near impossible and b) financially impossible regardless of Salah’s wages going off the books.

The final nail in the coffin for a potential deal comes courtesy of ‘a report from a transfer insider on X with a ‘team of five elite reporters’ and over 700k followers suggests they now have a greater chance of landing him’, as quoted by F365 earlier.

Firstly, why do you always describe this account so strangely? How can a transfer insider (singular) consist of ‘five elite reporters’ (plural), and why is the number of fuckwits who follow them matter?

Secondly, as far as I can see they not reliable at all and I am at a loss as to why F365 keeps quoting them as if they are.
A, LFC, Montreal

Spurs and the kings

Just over a month ago, upon the appointment of Igor Tudor, I wrote a lengthy piece to this mailbox bemoaning the “bonkers” appointment of a “lame duck manager” by “professionally negligent” owners, which would result in the club “sleepwalking into relegation” and Tudor being the “next manager out”. After hitting ‘send’, I thought I might have been being a tad pessimistic and may have even gone too far in suggesting Redders as viable alternative.

Six weeks in and I was almost too right, if anything.

Well, let it never be said that I’m someone who just brings grumbles rather than solutions. So, with the club having tried a “Tudor”, below is my list of (in)famous Kings and Queens who I genuinely think would do a better job or at least be better suited than the current man in the White Hart Lane hotseat:

King Midas – who better to bring the Midas Touch to North London than actual King Midas?

King Ralph – A “vibes” appointment; would get the team spirit up with bowling, fast food and strippers. Abdicating from the role after a short spell, should see him as the perfect interim manager.

Marie Antoinette – Absolutely completely out of touch with the common man or woman. Blinded by enormous wealth and oblivious to the cataclysmic problems around her despite the protestations of thousands. Someone the Spurs board would definitely approve of.

Joffrey Baratheon (Game of Thrones) – Cruel, sadistic, egotistical, spiteful. But enough about a certain “Special” former Spurs manager. Joffrey wouldn’t take any prisoners, with Micky Ven de Ven almost certain to have been beheaded and his head placed on a spike in punishment for his recent indiscipline. Which is probably a bit harsh, if I’m completely honest.

King Arthur – Legend. Literally.

Ledley King – Legend. Figuratively.

Don King – The great boxing promoter might not necessarily be a top-class footballing tactician, but would undoubtedly deliver a rousing pre-match team talk.

King Kong – Growling his tactical instructions from a vantage point hanging from the golden cockerel atop the South Stand, while throwing barrels at anyone who tries to rescue the Prin… Oh wait, no; that’s Donkey Kong.

King Canute – “Let all the world know that the power of kings is empty and worthless,” cried King Canute as he tried to stop Spurs being Spursy for just five f*****g minutes, “I might have another crack at that holding-back-the-tides business”.

Queen (the band) – In 1980, Rolling Stones magazine described Bohemian Rhapsody as a ‘Brazen Hodgepodge’, which – if that were the band’s collective approach to football tactics – would be very familiar to a set of players who have had to rapidly get used to Igor Tudor chopping and changing formations 427 times per game. “We are the Champ…” No , that won’t be necessary.
King Chris Bridgeman, Kingston upon Thames