Jordan Henderson no longer felt “wanted” by Liverpool and Jurgen Klopp as he broke his silence on his departure
Ordan Henderson has claimed he no longer feels wanted by Liverpool after speaking publicly in detail for the first time about his controversial summer transfer to Saudi Arabia.
The experienced 77-cap England midfielder spent a total of 12 years at Anfield, eight of them as captain, after joining from Sunderland in 2011, becoming a hugely popular and indispensable figure as he led the Reds to their first top-flight title Division for 30 years has led to many other major titles, including the Champions League, the FA Cup, two League Cups, the Super Cup and the Club World Cup.
However, that relationship ended back in July when Henderson left Merseyside to complete a transfer to Saudi Arabian club Al-Ettifaq worth £12 million plus add-ons, signing a lucrative contract and settling with the new coach and former captain of Liverpool, Steven, reunite Gerrard.
The loss of Henderson was compounded by his Brazilian teammate Fabinho’s subsequent move to Al-Ittihad in the Saudi Pro League, which reinforced Liverpool’s need for further midfield additions following the early summer deals for Alexis Mac Allister and Dominik Szoboszlai and the free transfer departures of James Milner, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Naby Keita, as well as injuries to players such as Thiago Alcantara, Curtis Jones and Stefan Bajcetic.
While Liverpool were without a number of players, including Jude Bellingham, Moises Caicedo and Romeo Lavia, they finally completed the long-overdue rebuild with the arrival of Japanese captain Wataru Endo from Stuttgart and a deadline transfer of Ryan Gravenberch from Bayern Munich.
Reds coach Jurgen Klopp said he was surprised by Henderson’s departure and explained how much the club would miss their long-time leader.
However, in one in-depth interview with The AthleticHenderson said “alarm bells” had been rung after a candid and private summer conversation with Klopp in which it was made clear he would not be playing as much as the club had planned to bring in new faces.
Speaking about Al-Ettifaq’s interest, Henderson said he felt both his value and Liverpool’s desire for him to stay had “shifted” – something he was grappling with after a summer in which As he says, he had worked hard on it but found it difficult to come to terms with it to ensure that he was in the best possible shape for the new Premier League season.
After twelve successful years at Liverpool, Jordan Henderson now plays for Al-Ettifaq in Saudi Arabia
/ Getty Images“The club’s response was again not to say no,” he said. “At that moment I felt that maybe my value or my desire to stay with the manager and the club had changed. I knew the time would come eventually. I didn’t think it would be like this now. And I had to accept that.
“I have very good relationships with Jürgen, with the owners of the club. This will be forever. What we have achieved together over the last 12 years is incredible. But at the same time, it was hard for me to bear.”
Henderson further claimed that he would have stayed at Liverpool if Klopp or the owners had simply told him they wanted him to stay there.
“If one of these people said to me, ‘Now we want you to stay’ then we wouldn’t be having this conversation,” he said when asked if part of him wanted Liverpool to fight for him to keep Anfield.
“And then I have to think about what’s next for me in my career. That doesn’t mean they forced me to leave the club or that they wanted me to leave, but at no point did I feel like the club or anyone was trying to make him stay.”
https://www.standard.co.uk/sport/football/jordan-henderson-liverpool-fc-jurgen-klopp-b1104863.html Jordan Henderson no longer felt “wanted” by Liverpool and Jurgen Klopp as he broke his silence on his departure
