This is unacceptable they can’t treat me that way’ – Four Liverpool players frozen out as Jurgen Klopp shows his ruthless side
Jordan Henderson claimed he felt unwanted after leaving Liverpool but his exit can’t compare to the players Jurgen Klopp overlooked completely
Jurgen Klopp manager of Liverpool during a training session at AXA Training Centre
With his booming laugh and big bear hugs, Jurgen Klopp is one of the best man-managers in world football.
But new light has perhaps been shed on a colder, more ruthless side of the Liverpool manager in recent weeks, as former Reds opened up on their Anfield exits. started with captain Jordan Henderson, who completed a controversial £12m move to Saudi Pro League side Al-Ettifaq in the summer. In an interview with the Athletic back, he revealed how he had felt unwanted by both the German and the club as he decided to leave for pastures new.
There were a few things that sent alarm bells ringing,” he revealed. “I’ve got a very good relationship with Jurgen. He was very honest with me.
I won’t go into detail about the conversation because it’s private, but it put me in a position where I knew that I wasn’t going to be playing as much. I knew there were going to be new players coming in my position.
And if I’m not playing, as anybody will know, especially the manager, that can be quite difficult for me and especially when I’ve been at a club for so long, I’ve captained the team for so long. Especially when England’s a big thing for me. You’ve got the Euros coming up.
“And then there was an approach from Al Ettifaq to the club to see if it would be possible for me to go there. The reaction from the club again wasn’t to say no.
“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 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.
“If one of those people said to me, “Now we want you to stay”, then we wouldn’t be having this conversation. 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.”
He is not alone in feeling that way. Roberto Firmino left Liverpool at the end of his contract last summer, also moving to Saudi Arabia to join Al-Ahli. The Brazilian informed Klopp of his decision to leave the club in March 2023.
Yet in his recently-released autobiography, Si Senor, the forward recalls how he had previously felt confident of a new deal, only for communication between his representatives and the club to feel ‘muddled’ and ‘slow’.
He would also claim, ‘The boss was avoiding me’ at the start of 2023 as his game-time was left limited without explanation that would have at least previously been forthcoming.
Insisting there was a ‘difference in understanding’ as to what he could offer Liverpool, he would also share his relief that after telling Klopp that he wasn’t going to sign a new contract, his manager did not try and persuade him to stay.
Both Henderson and Firmino at least held talks with Klopp, which is more than can be said for Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain. He would join Besiktas on a free transfer in the summer, having found game-time increasingly limited during his final years at Anfield.
While he understood why he wasn’t playing as much, the midfielder was left surprised at there being no communication with the club about his future until he was informed his release was being confirmed in an official club statement.
In January, I was getting a bit of momentum, scored at Brentford, then we had a bad result at Brighton — lost 3-0, got battered — and that was it for me,” Oxlade-Chamberlain told The Athletic. “And that was all I got.
“I was out of the squad for the majority of the rest of the season, training with the team, then on match days training on my own. I carried on, kept my head down and did everything to make sure I was ready, but ultimately the manager was going in a different direction that was sort of out of my control.
Some of the younger players were getting an opportunity to be involved, getting them ready for years to come, which I understand. I just guess you want that communicated to you because you start going out of your mind thinking, ‘What more can I do here?’
“And it was never really written off that you’re not getting offered a new contract. It was never said. I obviously got the picture.
got told before they released the statement (three days before that Aston Villa game): ‘Just so you know, we’re putting this out about you, Milly, Bobby and Naby leaving.’
“And I was like, ‘Oh, okay. Thanks’. But there was nothing official at any point before. It was just… the silence was enough to know what the situation was. You just… expect certain things to be told – whether it’s good, bad, whatever, that’s how the game goes. The lack of communication was… a bit surprising.”
That’s football, though. Players get older, get replaced, get sold and life goes on. Something that Oxlade-Chamberlain is well-aware of.
That’s football, though. Players get older, get replaced, get sold and life goes on. Something that Oxlade-Chamberlain is well-aware of.
“The longer I play the game, the more I realise you’re just an entity in the grand scheme of a business really,” he said. “There will be many more after us and there were many more before, people who have had great experiences. I
had great, great times at Liverpool. I couldn’t say anything bad about my time there. I wouldn’t even say it ended badly. At the end of the day, the club is bigger than any one player. Sometimes there’s bigger fish to fry.”
The aforementioned trio might not have played as much as they would have liked towards the end of their Anfield careers, no longer feeling like cherished Klopp favourites, but they were still part of his first team squad. During their Reds careers, they won every prize there was to win before being discarded.
It might seem cold and ruthless, but it is, was, and will always be just part of the game. And their stories are nothing to the players that Klopp actually froze out at Anfield, at times banishing them from his first team squad and making it clear they were not
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