(Football news) Jurgen Klopp is optimistic that Mohamed Salah will remain a Liverpool player next season despite his side missing out on Champions League football next year. The Egyptian forward said he was “devastated” and there was “absolutely no excuse” for not finishing at the top four of the Premier League as the Reds will be competing in the Europa League next season. The 30 year old signed a new contract last summer, becoming the highest paid player in the club’s history.

When asked if he was concerned about Salah’s immediate future after the Egyptian made a 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. 

“If ever a player came to me and said, ‘oh, we didn’t qualify for the Champions League, I have to leave’, I 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’. That would be something I never could understand. It is, I would say, ‘oh, we didn’t qualify for the Champions League, I need to work in the Champions League so I go’.” 

“I am responsible for this mess, or whatever, so you cannot go in these moments. 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. If you’d have asked me 10 games ago if that was possible, I’d have said no. That the boys did that is really good but it’s not perfect. We didn’t end up fifth because of the last 10 games, we ended up there because of the lack of consistency before that. We didn’t deliver what everybody wanted or expected but we are still really united, that’s the good thing about it.”

Liverpool’s failure to qualify for the Champions League will cost the club at least £50m but more importantly, it could affect their transfer activity this summer as top players want to play at the highest level. The Reds have already pulled out of the race for Jude Bellingham due to Dortmund’s asking price and according to new reports, Chelsea midfielder Maston Mount would prefer joining Manchester United. Klopp is eager to get transfer business done early to prepare for the next season.

“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. 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.”

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