Michail Antonio has revealed what Jurgen Klopp said to Mohamed Salah in their touchline row during Liverpool’s draw with West Ham.
Liverpool’s 2-2 draw with West Ham was overshadowed by an explosive touchline row between star forward Salah and manager Klopp. The Liverpool boss tried to play down the incident after the costly draw, but Salah fuelled talk of a bust-up by saying there would “be fire” if he revealed what he really thought.
Many theories have already emerged regarding what sparked the row. Alan Shearer has claimed Salah was annoyed about not starting the game, while footage has suggested the row started after the Egyptian turned down a customary handshake and hug from his manager. Antonio says the West Ham players have been talking about it and have come up with their own thoughts on the spat.
Antonio told the Footballer’s Football Podcast: “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 shin pads and stuff like that. Klopp 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 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.”
The row has led to speculation that Salah could follow Klopp out of the Liverpool exit door in the summer. Meanwhile, the pair will return to action Sunday against Tottenham in the Premier League with the Reds having seen their title hopes hit after dropping points to Everton and West Ham in their last two games.
