Jurgen Kloop has revealed that an inability to offer guarantees over regular playing time was behind Jordan Henderson‘s surprise Liverpool departure.
The club captain ended a 12-year run at Anfield this summer when he signed a £12 million agreement to join Reds great Steven Gerrard at Saudi Pro League team Al Ettifaq.
Henderson later explained in an interview with The Athletic that his decision to leave was unwanted, telling the manager and owners: “If any of them had said to me, ‘Now we want you to stay, we wouldn’t have.’ this conversation. ..”
However, Klopp somewhat denied the claim when speaking to reporters on Friday, insisting he wanted the midfielder to stay on Merseyside.
But the German felt his refusal to make promises about Henderson’s role after the midfield overhaul cost him in the end.
We had our talks and I told Hendo that I wanted him to stay, but we had to talk about the possibility of not playing regularly in those talks, I told him that we would bring players and things like that.
“You don’t talk about positive things and say, ‘Hendo, you’re going to play.’
“I can’t talk before the season and tell a player that they have 100 percent 50 games this season, because I don’t know that, it all depends on the performance. And if Hendo would have done it, he would have done it. I think, that it was 50 games, quite possible.
But in the particular situation we found ourselves in, I thought it was important that we talk about everything that means what happens when…
“Because Hendo is a fantastic player, I’ll love him forever, top man, but he’s not great when he’s not playing, I’ll put it this way. Milly was like that when I got here and Lucas Leiva was like that.
You may have always thought of them as terrific guys, but as soon as they see the lineup and realize they aren’t participating, they transform into a bizarre hybrid of the two.
That’s Hendo’s issue, thus you need to discuss it.
“He was my captain for seven and a half years, so I had to talk to him about that because I didn’t want to wake up one morning and have to fight with him because he believed he would start and I told him he wasn’t.
“Obviously, Hendo took that to mean, ‘Okay, he doesn’t want me here. I fully comprehend it, but we made that clear.
But despite my desire for him to stay, I was unable to say it. Therefore, it was preferable for Hendo to go on.
There is nothing to misunderstand from my perspective when I say, “I wish him the best and, when he comes here, from my point of view, he gets a real farewell, everything.”
