'Maybe Mo knows more about the 115 charges!' - Salah future question prompts Liverpool boss Arne Slot to make shock Man City relegation 'joke'

Reigning champions City have slipped 11 points off the pace in this season’s Premier League title race, with a 2-0 defeat at Anfield last time out extending their winless run to seven games – the worst sequence of Pep Guardiola’s managerial career.

Liverpool are top of the pile, as they seek to secure domestic dominance in Slot’s debut campaign as boss, but questions are being asked of how long the likes of Salah, Trent Alexander-Arnold and Virgil van Dijk will be sticking around as their respective contracts run down towards free agency in 2025.

It has been suggested that Salah may have played his final game at Anfield against City, as he is linked with a move to the Saudi Pro League, but Slot has responded to more probing on the Egyptian’s future by telling reporters: “Maybe Mo knows more about the 115 charges, so he expects them not to be in the Premier League next season. I do expect them in the Premier League. The boring answer is always the same, this is not the place for me to talk about Mo’s contract and maybe I have already said too much about the joke I just made. It was a joke. I repeat, a joke.”

Salah’s record against City is mightily impressive, and he will face them again at the Etihad Stadium in February 2025. It remains to be seen what happens after that, with the 32-year-old yet to discuss an extension to his terms on Merseyside while the Blues face the supposed threat of points deductions or possible demotion out of the Premier League in their long-running, 115-charge Financial Fair Play (FFP) saga.