Liverpool's Summer of Change: Rebuilding After Salah's Departure

Anfield faces a summer of hard truths. The emotional goodbyes have already started; the hard rebuilding comes next.

Andy Robertson, a cornerstone of Liverpool’s modern era, has waved farewell. Mohamed Salah, the “Egyptian King” and author of 257 goals in red, is preparing to walk away from Merseyside and test himself elsewhere. Around them, uncertainty swirls. Ibrahima Konate is drifting towards free agency. Dominik Szoboszlai, Curtis Jones, Alexis Mac Allister and even Alisson have all found their names dragged into exit conversations.

This is the squad Arne Slot walks into – or whoever ultimately takes charge of freshening it up. A team that has known how to win the Premier League, now braced for an exodus of the very players who helped deliver that standard.

The biggest hole, of course, sits on the right flank.

Salah’s departure does not just remove goals. It rips out a reference point, a guarantee, the man who has carried the attack for years and collected four Golden Boots along the way. Liverpool must now decide whether to go big immediately on a ready-made star or accept a season of transition and play the long game.

Names are already being thrown around. Bayern Munich’s Michael Olise and Paris Saint-Germain’s Khvicha Kvaratskhelia are being spoken of as future-window targets rather than instant arrivals. That has sparked talk of a “stop-gap” solution – a short-term winger to bridge the Salah era and whatever comes next.

John Arne Riise, speaking exclusively to GOAL in association with ToonieBet, sees a club on the brink of significant change.

“If you look at Arne Slot's interviews a few times now, he speaks about there's some changes to be done with the football club for next season,” Riise said. “I think some players will go and I think they're going to get some players.”

The question is how aggressively Liverpool can move. Last summer’s rebuild was expensive and extensive. The midfield was ripped up and reassembled. That kind of spending spree is hard to repeat every year.

“They went big last season, didn't they? Spent so much money. How much more money do they have to spend big?” Riise asked. He believes, though, that those signings will look stronger with another year behind them, able to “go step by step” rather than be thrown into another chaotic overhaul.

The allure of elite wide players is obvious. “Those players you mentioned, it would have been unbelievable to sign for Liverpool,” Riise admitted, before cutting straight back to the reality of budgets and fit. He does not know “how much money they have to spend or if they even will spend big trying to find players who really suit the system they need.”

What he is certain about is this: change is not optional.

“I'm going to be excited to watch this summer because there's changes to be done, needing to be done,” he said. Performances this season have exposed more than tired legs. In his eyes, they have revealed a comfort that turned into complacency.

“There's some players this season that have been way off form and I think it's when you're too confident in your position. I don't think they put the work in that they should have, some of the players. And you can see the performance hasn't been up to the standard either.”

Managers often take the brunt of the criticism when standards drop. Riise, a Champions League winner in 2005, pushed responsibility back towards the dressing room.

“Everybody blames the manager but us players, we know ourselves when we haven't been good enough and there's some players who need to step up for next season.”

Amid the turbulence, one bright spark has cut through the gloom.

Rio Ngumoha, just 17, has emerged from the academy shadows to score twice at senior level and inject some badly needed excitement into the stands. In a season where reputations have frayed, his has only grown stronger. It has even been suggested he could be fast-tracked as part of the answer to Salah’s departure.

Riise urges patience.

“I think he needs to stay at Liverpool and he needs to get a great pre-season for next season,” he said. No loan, no hiding place, but no unrealistic burden either.

“He will get more starting time next season but he's only 17 and his body won't handle playing week in, week out. Plus, he will go up and down in performances because he's young. It's just normal.”

The temptation to throw a gifted teenager straight into the void left by a superstar is obvious. Riise draws a line there.

“For me, he's not a starting XI regular yet because he needs time but he will start a lot more games next season. He will play longer games as well to get his fitness up but he won't be able to replace Mo Salah as a starter. We need someone else to come in and fill that role and do the job that Mo Salah has done.”

That is the scale of the task. Liverpool must find a way to replace one of the most prolific forwards in their history, reshape a squad losing experience on multiple fronts, and demand more from those who have slipped below their own standards – all while nurturing the next wave.

The farewells have already tugged at the heart. The next step is far colder: deciding who carries this team into its new era, and who has already had their last meaningful say in it.