Jurgen Klopp has told Jordan Henderson that he’s free to leave Liverpool, as he won’t be playing much next season.
Reds fans across the world have been rocked over the past couple of days, as whispers that their captain is set to leave the club become more concrete. Reporting on the latest of Henderson’s proposed move to Al Ettifaq, journalist Fabrizio Romano detailed what’s been said between the 33-year-old and his manager.
“This is the situation as of Thursday night,” Romano explained on his YouTube channel. “The agreement between Jordan Henderson and Saudi club Al Ettifaq, the club trained by Steven Gerrard is done.
“My understanding is in the conversation between Henderson and Jurgen Klopp on Thursday around lunchtime, the message was very clear: ‘If you find an opportunity, you can go, because here the game time is going to be limited.’ Klopp said that because Liverpool in any case, Henderson or no Henderson they want to sign one more midfielder.
“The plan is to sign one more, with Romeo Lavia in the list for sure. For sure they want one more. This is why Klopp was very honest with Henderson and the decision of the player is to say yes to Al Ettifaq.
“Now, it’s important to understand if Liverpool and Al Ettifaq will agree on the fee. Al Ettifaq started the conversation to sign the player for free, then Liverpool said no way. But Al Ettifaq thought they had the opportunity to close the deal for around £10m. At the moment there is still no agreement between clubs but this could change in any moment.
Henderson ready for Liverpool exit
This news from Klopp simply cannot have come as a surprise to Henderson. Frankly, if he thinks he should still be in Liverpool’s starting XI then he’s simply deluded.
There’s an argument that the £20m man wasn’t even in the Reds’ best XI even before they signed Alexis Mac Allister and Dominik Szoboszlai.
Henderson’s displays last season dropped off markedly. Other than his outings for England at the World Cup, he was below-par for the whole of the campaign.
With new, younger, fresher players now through the door, there’s no way he’d be as important as in his other years at Liverpool.
Nevertheless, that isn’t to say Henderson wouldn’t be important at all. He is the club captain after all and Jurgen has always played him even when it seemed easier not to.
And with the Reds in the middle of a midfield – and more general – rebuild, his experience and leadership would be helpful. In the end, it seems as though those kinds of things aren’t as important to Jordan as we all maybe thought they were.
Yes, he’ll get more playing time in Saudi Arabia, but at what cost to his Liverpool legacy.
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