Mohamed Salah Q&A: Who made the call for the Liverpool star to leave? What do Liverpool and the player do now and does it affect Arne Slot's future?

Mohamed Salah's shock announcement that he is leaving Liverpool is the big story of the week. But the real question is: what now?

The Egyptian forward - who will go down as one of Liverpool's greatest ever players - will depart at the end of the season, after nine stellar years at the club.

It opens up a huge summer ahead for the player and the club. How do Liverpool move on? What do Liverpool do now? And does it affect under-fire head coach Arne Slot?

What you've got now is both parties very clear on the summer ahead. Salah knows that he's in the market for a new club. Liverpool know that they're in the market to find a new attacking forward.

The money Liverpool had ringfenced for his wages for the forthcoming season will now be available for them to spend on a new player.

And any potential transfer fee that Liverpool would have gained by selling Salah, the player now knows that that fee will come to him as part of his package. That suits Salah because it gives him a greater ability to engineer the right deal for himself moving forward.

Also, this being announced so soon gives Liverpool, the club and the fans the opportunity to show their appreciation between now and the end of the season - and give him the send off he deserves as one of Liverpool's greatest ever.

And on top of that, Liverpool could still end up finishing this season with two trophies. There's a good chance that Salah will play a part in winning either of those if they do go on to win them.

Everyone knows between now and the end of the season, it's the Mo Salah farewell tour.

No. Clearly, this season hasn't been Salah's most effective and his impact on the team has not been at the level it was in previous years.

Liverpool signed Salah to a two-year contract in the summer of 2025 on very lucrative terms. Salah became the highest-paid player in Liverpool's history and he warranted that because of his performances last season.

Today, a lot of people would say it was a bad move signing Salah on a new contract. But if you spoke to any group of football fans last summer and said: What should Liverpool do with Mo Salah? After the season he had, 99.9 per cent of people would say: you have to keep him.

With hindsight, Liverpool were actually in a lose-lose situation. If they'd not signed him to a new deal, people would have said: Why are you letting this player go?

And if Liverpool do sign him and he doesn't have an effective season - which looks like the case now - people would say: Why did you sign him?

Liverpool did what they believed to be the right thing.

Slot's future will have no bearing on the Salah situation.

Liverpool have a long-term contract with Slot and right now they'll be focusing on finishing the season by trying to win two more trophies.

If Liverpool go and win the FA Cup and Champions League, you'd imagine Slot would be going nowhere.

Right now, Liverpool are not thinking about what will happen in the summer.

Rami Abbas - Salah's agent - has made it very clear: they don't know what's going to happen, so no one else can know for sure. But there are lots of options.

Everyone will immediately point towards Saudi Arabia. There are four sides in the Saudi Pro League that are under the guise of Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund (PIF), who have tried to sign Salah before.

Some of those PIF teams already have big superstars. Some of them don't. But it would certainly be the four PIF-owned franchises in Saudi that would be at the front of the list.