Sorry, Mo? Carragher should stand his ground while Salah owes the apologies…

“Mo, I apologise, I’ve upset you.”

F*** that, Carra. Stick to your guns, man.

It all seemed to get to the ex-Liverpool defender on Tuesday night, when we reached the backlash to the backlash stage of the Salah saga. And now we’re into the backlash to the backlash to the backlash. The backlash cubed. Do keep up.

Amid the debate and rancour, it must not be forgotten what sparked all this: Salah acting the awful d*ck.

The Liverpool icon – justified or not – felt he was ‘thrown under the Liverpool bus’ so, by way of retaliation and with laser-guided accuracy, he lobbed grenades at it, seemingly intent on taking out the manager without a care for the collateral damage.

Salah feels – as others do – that he has enough credit in the bank to dodge any consequences for a rotten run of form. Along with any running whatsoever in the direction of his own goal.

No doubt the irony was utterly lost on Salah that his act of Slot sabotage took place at Elland Road where neither he nor the reporters, disbelieving of their ears or their luck, were ever more than six feet from a visual of Billy Bremner’s motto: ‘Side before self, every time.’

Nor should Salah forget that such an ethos is what made Liverpool, and consequently himself, successful.

The relentless Reds, the Mentality Monsters… none of that happened in isolation. Jurgen Klopp built Liverpool’s success on the back of the collective, never the individual. Sure, Salah starred. And perhaps he pulled his team-mates along. But never really did he carry them to any of their titles. As Carragher has been at pains to point out, Salah was a huge factor in the domestic and European success Liverpool have enjoyed since he was signed by Klopp in 2017. But rarely, if ever, were they ‘the Salah team’.

The humility was part of what made Salah great. The Egyptian used to press with the same intensity as anyone else in red and that coupled with his supreme talent in possession was the package that catapulted Salah to superstardom. But upon achieving such status, it seems the ego has taken over.

Or perhaps it’s more simple. Maybe his legs have gone. It happens to everyone eventually. And when it does, the great players and the great teams adapt. That only happens collaboratively; never by ignoring the issue or, worse, pretending there isn’t an issue while taking it out on everyone else.

Whatever is at the root of Salah’s episode, he now finds himself isolated, despite the presence of more allies than he merits.

🔴🔴 MORE ON SALAH VERSUS SLOT
👉 Arne Slot attempts to stop Mo Salah headline lies with absolutely no success
👉 Curtis Jones is embarrassing two of the greatest Liverpool players ever with his actions and words
👉 Liverpool legend Carragher apologises after being branded a ‘disgrace’ over Salah slam

Micah Richards fought Salah’s corner on Tuesday night when Carragher was pressed on CBS to follow up his impassioned Monday Night Football criticism. Almost certainly, Richards was playing devil’s advocate, purposefully provoking ‘petty’ Carragher to find his flow for a different paymaster by suggesting Salah had been wronged because of ‘what he’s done’ as ‘one of the greatest to grace the Premier League’.

Carragher’s logic ripped Richards’ point to pieces – specifically over how Slot could have given Salah a pity cameo against Leeds – and he remained firmly on the right side of the argument, even amid the distracting backdrop of Thierry Henry’s shiatsu.

And from there, Carragher should stand his ground. He’s right. Salah and his apologists are wrong.

It is that clear. As it is that it is the player, not the manager or Liverpool-leaning pundit who should be saying sorry, as Slot suggested in Milan.

That is the only way back for Salah. Liverpool cannot indulge their star to the extent he feels his past achievements deserve. If Salah wants to play for the club again – does he? – that can only happen with an apology, and one that at least appears genuine and is offered as publicly as the hit he attempted on Slot on Saturday night.