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Won’t somebody think of the journalists? Having been forced to rewrite their on-the-whistle match reports at the speed of light due to a late equaliser, the members of the Fourth Estate covering the six-goal thriller between Leeds and Liverpool were already in a bad mood. As they took in the post-match managerial press conferences, filed the last of their follow-up copy and packed away their laptops, they had no idea their misery was about to get worse. A profession that regularly decries the pointlessness of post-match “flash” interviews, they will have been further incensed to learn that for only the third occasion in his time at the club, Mohamed Salah had elected to stop to talk to a hopeful hack. The ensuing scorched earth soliloquy was delivered with a calm composure that belied its incendiary nature and anyone who squinted could actually see the soul of a nearby Liverpool media-handler ascend from his body as he eavesdropped with mounting horror on each passing rapier thrust.
Whether he was cancelling dinner plans or alerting his superiors to a “Code Mo”, the club comms person’s increasingly frantic texting as Salah unburdened himself sent tremors through the press room. Coats came off. Laptop bags were reopened. The air was almost certainly rent with loud effing and jeffing as the journalists present realised the thrilling match upon which they’d just reported had only been the warm-up for the main event. While Salah is famously selective when it comes to granting self-indulgent tantrums to reporters, those of Football Daily’s acquaintance would generally prefer it if he didn’t select 8.35pm on a Saturday that had previously been so full of pub-based promise as the ideal time to vent his spleen.
