Henderson not ‘felt wanted’ by Liverpool and Klopp as he talks exit
J
ordan Henderson has claimed that he not felt needed by Liverpool after talking in-depth publicly for the primary time on his controversial summer time switch to Saudi Arabia.
The veteran 77-cap England midfielder spent 12 years in complete at Anfield, together with eight as captain, after becoming a member of from Sunderland in 2011, changing into a massively standard and indispensable determine as he led the Reds to their first top-flight title for 30 years and loads of different main silverware together with the Champions League, FA Cup, two League Cups, the Super Cup and Club World Cup.
However, that relationship got here to an finish again in July, when Henderson departed Merseyside to finish a switch to Saudi Arabian membership Al-Ettifaq price £12million plus add-ons, signing a profitable contract and reuniting with new boss and ex-Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard.
The lack of Henderson was compounded by Brazilian team-mate Fabinho’s personal subsequent swap to the Saudi Pro League with Al-Ittihad, intensifying Liverpool’s want for additional midfield recruits after early summer time offers for Alexis Mac Allister and Dominik Szoboszlai and the exits on free transfers of James Milner, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Naby Keita plus accidents to the likes of Thiago Alcantara, Curtis Jones and Stefan Bajcetic.
While Liverpool missed out on a raft of gamers over the window together with Jude Bellingham, Moises Caicedo and Romeo Lavia, they ultimately accomplished that overdue rebuild with the arrival of Japan skipper Wataru Endo from Stuttgart and a deadline day transfer for Bayern Munich’s Ryan Gravenberch.
Reds supervisor Jurgen Klopp mentioned that he was stunned by the exit of Henderson and acknowledged how a lot the membership would miss their long-serving chief.
However, in a wide-ranging interview with The Athletic, Henderson mentioned “alarm bells” had been despatched ringing after an trustworthy and personal summer time dialog with Klopp by which he says it was made clear that he wouldn’t be enjoying as a lot because the membership deliberate to usher in new faces.
Discussing the curiosity from Al-Ettifaq, Henderson mentioned he felt that each his worth and Liverpool’s need for him to remain had “shifted” – one thing he discovered tough to come back to phrases with after a summer time by which he says he labored intensely to make sure that he was in the absolute best form for the brand new Premier League marketing campaign.
Jordan Henderson is now enjoying for Al-Ettifaq in Saudi Arabia after 12 profitable years at Liverpool
/ Getty Images“The reaction from the club again wasn’t to say no,” he mentioned. “At that moment I felt as though my value or the want for me to stay, with the manager and within the club, maybe it had shifted. I knew that time would come at some point. I didn’t think it would be now. And I had to accept that.
“I’ve got very good relationships with Jurgen, with the owners of the club. That’ll be forever. What we’ve achieved together in the past 12 years has been incredible. But at the same time, it was hard for me to take that.”
Henderson went on to say that he would have remained at Liverpool had Klopp or the homeowners merely informed him that they needed him to remain put.
“If one of those people said to me, “Now we want you to stay”, then we wouldn’t be having this dialog,” he mentioned when requested if there was part of him that needed Liverpool to struggle to maintain him at Anfield.
“And I have to then think about what’s next for me in my career. Now, that’s not to say that they forced me out of the club or they were saying they wanted me to leave but at no point did I feel wanted by the club or anyone to stay.”