Graeme Souness believes that Mohamed Salah is one of the ‘most selfish players’ he has ever watched and has claimed that the Egyptian forward ‘is leaving Liverpool’ amid speculation he could be on his way out of Anfield.

Doubts have been raised this week over whether Salah will stay at the Merseyside club past this summer, after the 31-year-old was embroiled in a touchline row with Jurgen Klopp during the Reds 2-2 draw away to West Ham on Saturday.

The outgoing manager had opted to rest Salah from the starting line up for that match – with Liverpool’s attackers having struggled in front of goal during the Reds’ title run-in. The 31-year-old forward, whose contract will expire in 2025, was seen speaking furiously with Klopp on the sideline before the Egyptian fanned the flames after the match, telling journalists: ‘If I speak, there would be fire if’.

While the incident has raised alarm bells over whether Salah’s future, Liverpool have made it clear that they ‘expect the forward to stay past this summer.’

Despite that, Reds legend Souness believes otherwise and while speaking on William Hill’s Three Up Front podcast, the ex-Scotland midfielder claimed that Salah had an ‘exceptionally large opinion of himself.’

‘I believe Mohamed Salah is off and leaving Liverpool. He has been fabulous for Liverpool, but if he leaves to the Saudi Pro League then he’ll be the biggest star in that part of the world,’ Souness told Simon Jordan and Troy Deeney on the podcast.

‘He no doubt has an exceptionally large opinion of himself, and he’ll have been angry at not starting the game against West Ham last week.

‘I think the situation with Jurgen Klopp was a reaction to only being brought on with 10 minutes to go – it was more Salah than it was Klopp in that confrontation.

‘Salah is the most selfish player I have ever witnessed. Even prior to that game, whenever Klopp takes him off, he is never happy about it.’

‘That is what you want from your players, if you take them off on two goals, they should want to stay on to score a third. When Sadio Mane was there they’d fall out all the time.

While it’s been a torrid few weeks for Liverpool, who conceded the title race following defeats to Crystal Palace and Everton, Salah was pictured on Thursday smiling as he trained with his Liverpool team-mates following the ugly touchline quarrell.

It will have been an unsavoury incident for the German manager too during his final few weeks in charge at the club. After the West Ham game, Klopp stated that the incident had been dealt with.

‘No,’ the Liverpool boss said when pressed on whether he could share what had been said. ‘But we spoke already in the dressing room and for me that’s done.’

Salah’s touchline row with Klopp has also caught the attention of several other commentators within football, including Souness’ co-host Jordan, who called Salah a ‘fair weather player’ during a radio show on talkSPORT.

‘I know this is controversial and people are going to tell me what a clown I am and I should ride around in a clown car, but I’m not a fan of Mo Salah,’ Jordan said.

‘I don’t think he’s as good as people make him out to be. I think he dives, I think he can be a fair weather player.

‘I know this will sound ridiculous to people and will make me incredibly unpopular by saying it, obviously he’s scored lots of goals, but when the going gets tough some people stand up and fight and some people don’t.

‘I get this feeling that Salah can be one of those. It’s an opinion.’

Michael Antonio, meanwhile, believes he knows what was said between Klopp and Salah during the touchline altercation.

He said on the Footballer’s Football Podcast: ‘As the (Liverpool) players come on, Klopp always gives them a big hug and says “good luck”, but when Mo came on he walked in a different direction and was doing his shinpads and stuff like that.

‘Klopp has put his hand out to him and his hand was there for a bit and as Mo stopped doing what he was doing, he just slapped his (Klopp’s) hand as a high five.

‘Obviously Klopp didn’t like that and he was like, “do you want to sit back down?”, basically saying, “do you want to go on?”. And nobody has told me what Mo said back.’

Salah, who joined Liverpool back in 2017 from Roma for £36.5million, has been the Reds’ star man up front for many seasons.

While The Athletic understand that Liverpool bosses want to keep Salah next season, it comes after Saudi Arabian sides had tabled some big offers for him last summer, with Mail Sport revealing that Al-Ittihad were ready to table £200m for Salah.

But he, alongside Liverpool’s forwards, Darwin Nunez, Luis Diaz and Diogo Jota have struggled to find the back of the net during recent weeks, with Salah scoring only twice in the Premier League since his return from injury in his last eight Premier League appearances.

Despite that, Souness did praise the Egyptian for having been pivotal in Liverpool’s success under Klopp – claiming that his goals have had a huge impact on helping Liverpool win the Champions League in 2019 and the Premier League the following season.

And while Liverpool may be all but out of the title race, Souness stated that Salah would walk into several other top sides.

‘I think he still gets into the Arsenal team and certainly would’ve gotten into the Manchester City team over the past five years,’ the ex-Liverpool midfielder added.