Wayne Rooney Calls for Mohamed Salah's Exclusion from Final Game
Wayne Rooney has called on Arne Slot to take a hard line with Mohamed Salah and banish the Liverpool star from the club’s final game of the season against Brentford, accusing the forward of publicly undermining his manager and his teammates.
Speaking on The Wayne Rooney Show, the former Manchester United and England captain did not soften a single word. Salah’s recent social media post, in which he demanded a return to the “heavy metal” football associated with Jurgen Klopp, has been widely read as a direct swipe at Slot’s current approach. For Rooney, it crossed a line.
“I find it sad at the end of what he’s done and what he’s achieved at Liverpool,” Rooney said, making clear his respect for Salah’s legacy before turning the screw. “It’s not the point for him to come out and aim another dig at Slot. He wants to play heavy metal football, so he’s basically saying he wants Jurgen Klopp football. Now I don’t think Mo Salah can cope with that type of football anymore. I think his legs have gone to play at that high tempo and high intensity.”
In Rooney’s eyes, this wasn’t just a nostalgic nod to Klopp. It was a grenade lobbed into a dressing room already under strain.
“He's almost just dropped the grenade and said he doesn't trust and believe in Arne Slot and almost thrown his teammates who are going to be there next season and let them have to deal with that as well and put them into a position."
This is not the first flashpoint between Salah and Slot. Earlier in the campaign, the Egyptian was dropped after accusing the manager and the club of throwing him “under the bus” over his lack of regular starts. That row simmered; this one has boiled.
Salah’s status at Liverpool is untouchable in historical terms. One of the greatest to wear the shirt, a player whose goals – 257 of them – have powered an era. Yet Rooney believes the current storm is less about tactics and more about a superstar searching for excuses during a flat season.
Last year, Salah fired Liverpool to the Premier League title and hit 29 league goals. This season, across all competitions, he has just 12 in 40 appearances, with Liverpool drifting towards a fifth-place finish. To Rooney, the pattern is obvious.
“I think Salah's trying to vindicate himself and make himself feel better because he's had a very poor season,” he claimed. “So I think he's been very selfish in what he's done in the two occasions. It's a shame and fans will be on his side, but I think when you look deeper into it and having been in a dressing room in a similar situation to that as well, Mo Salah knows exactly what he's doing.”
Rooney knows what it looks like when a manager decides enough is enough. He lived it.
He recalled his own clash with Sir Alex Ferguson, when a disagreement led to him being left out of Ferguson’s final game at Old Trafford. The message then was brutal but clear: the manager’s authority comes first. Rooney believes Slot now faces a similar moment of truth.
“If I was Arne Slot, I’d have him nowhere near the stadium in the last game,” Rooney insisted. “I had it with Alex Ferguson. I had a disagreement and fall out and at Alex Ferguson’s last game at Old Trafford, he left me out of the squad for that reason. That’s your manager. You can’t publicly disrespect him twice the way he has and get away with it. And that’s where if I was Arne Slot, I’d have to pull rank and just say, listen, you’re not coming anywhere near the place on Saturday, whether you like it or not. I really doubt he will do it, but I think he should.”
The idea of Salah, a modern Liverpool icon, being kept away from Anfield on what could be his farewell afternoon feels almost unthinkable. Yet Rooney is unmoved by sentiment.
“Of course he deserves a good send off but does he deserve it just for this? It’s the second time he’s done it. It’s just a shame to see one of the great icon of Premier League players leave the Premier League probably in this situation."
Salah’s outburst has landed in the middle of a broader collapse. Liverpool’s title defence has fallen apart, the intensity that once defined them draining away from both the team and the stands. Anfield, once a place opponents feared, now feels agitated and flat when the press isn’t there.
“I think that's the biggest change for me where you go to Anfield, the first thing you want to do is quieten the crowd. But I think actually by Liverpool not pressing they're quietening the crowd down themselves and frustrating the Liverpool fans,” Rooney said.
The accusation cuts deep: that some players have “downed tools” during this slump. For any manager, that’s the red-alert sign.
“I’m quite split in should he go or should he stay because he won the league last season, I think he deserves a bit more time, in terms of what we’ve seen this season. I don't feel right or good saying this, some players look like they've downed tools and that's a big problem if you see that or you feel that for the manager."
So Slot stands at a crossroads. One of the club’s greatest players, openly pining for a previous era and publicly questioning the current one. A fanbase torn between gratitude for what has been and anger at what they are watching now. A dressing room under scrutiny for its effort as much as its quality.
Does he bend to the weight of Salah’s legacy and give him the send-off many feel he has earned? Or does he follow the Ferguson playbook Rooney invoked, pull rank, and make a ruthless call that signals this is his Liverpool now, not a tribute act to what came before?
