Jurgen Klopp to hold clear-the-air talks with Sadio Mane after handshake snub amid doubts over star’s Liverpool future
JURGEN KLOPP will hold clear-the-air talks with Sadio Mane after the snub that put a new question mark over his Reds future. Mane angrily rejected his manager’s offer of a handshake moments after Liverpool’s 4-2 win at Manchester United. As Klopp held out his right hand, the 29-year-old shook his head and kept on walking. Mane’s […]
JURGEN KLOPP will hold clear-the-air talks with Sadio Mane after the snub that put a new question mark over his Reds future.
Mane angrily rejected his manager’s offer of a handshake moments after Liverpool’s 4-2 win at Manchester United.
As Klopp held out his right hand, the 29-year-old shook his head and kept on walking.
Mane’s reaction was condemned by ex-Liverpool boss Graeme Souness as “disrespectful” to the manager and club.
Fellow pundit Roy Keane said he was “out of order”.
But Klopp said: “Football is an emotional game and people expect that we control our emotions always — but it doesn’t work out that way.
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“If somebody shows me five million times respect and one time not, what’s more important?
“We will talk about it and everything will be fine.”
Yet there will now be fears that having delivered a previous snub — Mane was offered a new £220,000-a-week contract almost two years ago that has remained unsigned — the striker may be planning on walking away from Anfield.
He has two years left of his current £150,000-a-week deal — and Real Madrid, Paris Saint-Germain and Barcelona have all been courting him.
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The £30million former Southampton star did post on Instagram pictures of the win over United, declaring: “Big three points.”
Yet Mane was clearly upset at being left on the bench for Diogo Jota — having earlier this week admitted he had consulted medics about what he described as “the worst season of my career”.
And in Jota, a £45m signing from Wolves, Mane now has a serious rival for his left-sided attacking slot.
Jota missed three months of the season but stands on the 13-goal mark, only one short of Mane.
But Klopp was at pains to make clear that while he will sit down with him and discuss Thursday night’s incident, he understands why his player reacted in the way he did.
The German is also anxious that the fallout from that failed attempt at a handshake does not disturb the equilibrium of the fallen champs, who face West Brom on Sunday with new hope of pinching a place in the top four.
He stressed: “I can’t make a big story out of this.
“This is not the first time in my life that something like this has happened and it probably won’t be the last time. And if you could have seen me when I was a player showing the emotions I sometimes showed . . . it was insane. It will be sorted.”
Meanwhile, Klopp can only smile at how Mo Salah continues to impress on the opposite side of the pitch from Mane.
He collected his 124th goal in 200 appearances for Liverpool on Thursday and the ex-Borussia Dortmund manager says he is one of his greatest signings.
Klopp said: “Let me say it like this: two players, there’s Robert Lewandowski, who I signed for a different amount of money, who had an incredible development from a different level.
“With Mo, from the guy who scores from time to time and is a really good football player to this goalscoring machine is a massive development.
“He is an outstanding signing but the way he developed, the way he treats himself, the game preparation, the training preparation, training attitude and all these kind of things, that’s exceptional.
“That’s a real role model and he deserves all that, absolutely.”
LIVERPOOL (likely): Alisson, Alexander-Arnold, Phillips, Williams, Robertson, Thiago, Fabinho, Wijnaldum, Salah, Firmino, Jota.
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