A legend speaks from experience

Steven Gerrard has broken his silence on Mohamed Salah's early departure from Liverpool, and his verdict is one of the most considered takes you'll hear on the matter. The former captain, who knows better than most what it feels like to sense the end of an era at Anfield, says he holds no ill will towards Salah and fully understands why the Egyptian wanted out a year ahead of schedule.

Salah had signed a two-year contract extension in April 2025, but a serious falling-out with head coach Arne Slot changed everything. Dropped to the bench for three consecutive Premier League matches as Slot tried to halt a damaging run of nine defeats in 12 between September and November, Salah made clear he was unhappy. A truce was eventually reached and he returned to the side in mid-December, but by the following March international break he had publicly signalled his intention to leave at the end of the season. Liverpool agreed to release him from the final year of his deal, and he departed as a free agent before joining Turkish club Trabzonspor in August.

Why Gerrard says there are no hard feelings

Gerrard's empathy here is not simply diplomatic. Speaking to Sport Bible, he drew a direct parallel with his own exit from Liverpool at the end of the 2014-15 campaign, when his relationship with then-manager Brendan Rodgers had cooled and he ultimately moved on to LA Galaxy. That lived experience gives his words genuine weight.

"I don't think that every footballer necessarily has to finish their career at a club where they've shone for so long," Gerrard said. "I think what's important when you get to the latter stages of your career is that you continue to enjoy it; that a manager appreciates you; that you're still starting football matches. I was in a similar situation myself with Brendan Rodgers and no hard feelings and all due respect, I think it's important that you see your career out where you're enjoying it, you're still playing and you're still contributing and you feel important."

It is difficult to argue with that logic, especially when the man making it left under remarkably similar circumstances a decade earlier. Gerrard's grace in discussing a situation that echoes his own says as much about him as it does about Salah.

What Salah leaves behind

The context around Salah's exit matters. He did not slip away quietly in the twilight of a career that had long since peaked. He departed as the third highest goalscorer in Liverpool's history, having found the net 257 times for the club. That is a record that will stand for a very long time, and it is the only ledger that ultimately counts.

The manner of the split was untidy, and the bench-warming episodes during that difficult autumn will linger in the memory. But Gerrard's framing is the right one: a player who gave Liverpool everything he had for the best years of his career deserves to see out his days on his own terms, wherever those terms take him. Trabzonspor may have surprised a few people, but that is Salah's prerogative.

The more interesting question now is what Liverpool do next, and whether they can find someone capable of even approaching what he produced at this club.