You can’t blame Xherdan Shaqiri for being desperate to leave Anfield in the summer. Limited to 25 starts across his three seasons with the Reds, if he had hoped it would be a case of third-time lucky in establishing himself as a starter at an elite club then he would be sadly mistaken.
Xherdan Shakiri said: “I wanted to leave Liverpool sooner. But I wasn’t allowed to; the club wouldn’t let me go. The important thing for me is that I’m gone now. There were also offers from Spain and Italy. I was in contact with him (Klopp) by phone before that. When the time came, he texted me. He wished me luck in that and said that I was a good player and a good guy. We never had any problems with each other, and we had a very good relationship. But I just wanted a new challenge, that’s normal in football. Jurgen helped me in this regard.”
Boasting a goal and an assist from seven appearances for Lyon so far, Liverpool fans will hope Shaqiri can keep his Reds injury problems in the past and finally take a deserved centre stage as he enters the latter years of his career.
