Curtis Jones marked Liverpool’s final day with a second-half opener, but the Premier League season ended in a 1-1 draw at Brentford that sealed a fifth-placed finish and Champions League qualification for Arne Slot’s side. Kevin Schade answered for Brentford, leaving the visitors to close the campaign with relief, reflection and a little sadness.
Jones said the season had been up and down, but stressed that the important thing was getting back into Europe’s top competition. The midfielder also described Sunday as emotional after Andy Robertson and Mohamed Salah ended their nine-year spells at Liverpool, calling them two legends who had helped shape him on and off the pitch.
“It’s been up and down. Of course it has. We’ve won important games. We’ve obviously lost games as well. But the important thing now is that we’re in the Champions League,” Jones said after the match, speaking in the aftermath of Liverpool’s final game of the season.
He said Salah’s influence was not limited to performances on the field. Jones recalled the forward’s professionalism and said there was a period when he was struggling with injuries, and Salah let him use his personal physio outside the club. “I respect him even more for that,” he said.
Jones was equally clear about Robertson’s role in his rise from academy prospect to first-team regular. He said the Scotland defender helped him when he came into the team as a kid, was hard on him at times, and kept telling him the talent was there but the work had to match it. Jones said he only later understood that the pressure came from care.
The midfielder said the departure of Robertson and Salah should not just be treated as the end of two long careers at Anfield. Their exit, he said, leaves a standard that the rest of the squad must keep. “Absolutely, yeah,” Jones said when asked about carrying that on, describing Liverpool as more than a football team and more like a family.
That point carried extra weight because Jones also referred to Diogo Jota, saying Liverpool had lost one of their brothers and that he had been a huge part of the team. He described Jota as a huge help every single day and said he was unbelievable both as a human being and as a player.
The draw did little to change the emotional tone of the afternoon, but it delivered the one concrete reward Liverpool needed from the closing match: a return to the Champions League. For Jones, that made the farewells easier to bear. The club moves on without Robertson and Salah, but it does so with its European target secured and with one of its homegrown players making clear what their example now demands.
