21-year-old says Liverpool barely spoke to him last season, knew he needed to leave

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Leighton Clarkson has admitted that he decided to leave Liverpool after barely hearing from them last season.

Clarkson had an excellent campaign on-loan at Aberdeen, and has since made the move to Scotland permanent. It brought an end to a long association with the Reds, where he rose up through the academy to make three first team appearances.

But despite his face being a familiar one with the senior stars at Liverpool, Clarkson told The Athletic that he hardly heard from anyone at all during his stay at Aberdeen last year. Without contact from his parent club, the 21-year-old knew it was time for him to move on.

“Since I came up to Aberdeen, I didn’t really hear much from any of them [the first-team]” he admits. “And that’s when I knew I maybe needed to move on.”

Thankfully, Clarkson does point out that plenty of academy staff were in touch with him. So too were former academy teammates such as Rhys and Neco Williams. But still, this is disappointing.

Clarkson left out in the cold by Liverpool

This is such a shame to hear from Clarkson. Liverpool are well-known as a club who really do their best to look after their own. Once a Red, always a Red is a popular slogan and players do seem to find it easy to find an affinity with the club.

Whether they played three times or 300 times, Liverpool tends to stick with a player long after he’s walked the Anfield corridors for the last time.

So why then did the Reds leave Clarkson out in the cold at Aberdeen?

It may have been true that the midfielder had no future in the first-team, but that should hardly matter. He’s proven to be a valuable asset to the club, with them securing a transfer fee and likely any percentage of a sale in the years to come, too.

Jurgen Klopp has raved about him in the past and took a shine to him a few years back, too. The manager handed him his Liverpool debut at 18 and seemed to be keen on bringing him through.

A failed loan move to Blackburn Rovers in 2021 ultimately proved to be the turning point on his Reds career. But even so, Clarkson is obviously a good player. You only need look at the excitement from Aberdeen fans to see that.

Anyway, it’s likely that a snub from those at his boyhood club will only drive the youngster on to be even better. We hope it does. YNWA Leighton, all the best up North!