Simon Hughes, senior football writer at The Athletic, spoke to us about his latest book Chasing Salah: The Autobiography.

Hughes has also written Red Machine (2013), Men in White Suits (2015), Ring of Fire (2016), On The Brink (2017), Allez Allez Allez (2019) and There She Goes (2019).

Additionally, he co-authored 61 Minutes in Munich in 2016 with Howard Gayle, Liverpool FC’s first black footballer, and edited Geoff Twentyman’s scouting book A Secret Diary of a Liverpool Scout (2009).

He is the definitive author on Liverpool Football Club.

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Strikingly, Mohamed Salah played Football Manager and managed the Reds when he was a Basel player.

Hughes said: “Dave Fallows (Liverpool’s director of scouting and recruitment who is to leave the club by the end of the year) was trying to explain to him that, ‘You will get a chance at Liverpool. We do not have a squad with international global talent like other clubs.’

“And Salah was like, ‘Yeah, I know because I have managed Liverpool before and there are not many players there.’”

Indeed, only 15 Liverpool players played more than 1,350 minutes in the 2013-14 season with just four of those attackers: Luis Suarez, Daniel Sturridge, Philippe Coutinho and Raheem Sterling.

Brendan Rodgers allowed Dirk Kuyt, Andy Carroll (on loan), Craig Bellamy and Maxi Rodriguez to leave in his first transfer window in the summer of 2012.

Carroll left permanently alongside Stewart Downing to West Ham 12 months later.

Replacements Fabio Borini, Ousamma Assaidi, Iago Aspas, and Luis Alberto were too young, but more importantly, not the standard required.

The famous red wore too heavy on their shoulders.

The Reds now have two elite players in each forward position: Luis Diaz and Cody Gakpo on the left, Diogo Jota and Darwin Nunez through the middle, and Salah and Federico Chiesa on the right.

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Jurgen Klopp and Salah are arguably the most important players and managers in the modern history of Liverpool Football Club.

But they were not best friends.

This was publicly demonstrated at West Ham at the end of last season which was, ultimately, an embarrassment to the club.

That day, they undermined each other. Yet, they deeply respected each other.

Salah was the first name on the team sheet and Klopp very rarely substituted him.

Equally, under the tutelage of Klopp, Salah became a world-class footballer.

Hughes said: “I think the important thing to stress is, as a journalist, when you try and explain a conflict inside the club it does not mean that they are at each other’s throats all the time.

“What you are fighting against largely is this perception of harmony where when a club is successful everything off the pitch must be great because everybody likes each other.

“In sport, particularly team sport, a lot of success is based on the back of confrontation.

“Even now, I think maybe there is a perception that inside football players are slightly less confrontational, they have less strong opinions about how the game is played.

“It is not how it was when Roy Keane played the game, put it that way.

“The reality is there is a lot of needle and players wanting to be the main player at that club and it happens a lot, at most clubs.

“His relationship with Klopp was fine, it was not like it was a problem between them, but there was not that sense of warmth in the way that Klopp had the relationship with many other players.”

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On July 1, 2022, Ramy Abbas infamously tweeted the “Rolling on the Floor Laughing” emoji provoking rage only for the club to announce Salah had signed a new long-term contract with the club later that day.

Interestingly, Hughes added: “What you have got to remember is Ramy Abass is Salah’s lawyer first and foremost.

“He bristles at the suggestion that he is his agent, it is a dirty word in some ways.

“Salah is his only client now, so his total and utter focus is on him.

“He has had other players in the past, quite a few Colombian players in the past, the country in which he was born and lived for some of his childhood, but it is just him and Salah now.”

Chasing Salah is out now! It is available at all good bookstores.

Tickets are still available for “Simon Hughes Discusses Chasing Salah: The Autobiography” on Thursday, November 28 – the evening after the Real Madrid match – at Waterstones, Liverpool.

Simon will be in conversation with fellow Liverpool journalist and Daily Mirror columnist Brian Reade.

Their discussion will be followed by an audience Q&A and a book signing.

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