West Ham United midfielder Stewart Downing has revealed that he was happy to leave Liverpool in the Summer after being told he would not be a regular start under Brendan Rodgers.
The England international joined The Reds from Aston Villa for a whopping £20million, but never managed to live up to his price-tag and eventually joined The Hammers for a cut-price of £7million.
Although the 29-year-old was used frequently last year, he was told that this season would not be the same and that is why he was happy to leave.
“I didn’t have to think about it that long,” Downing says. “I just said: ‘OK, I will sign tomorrow.’ And that was it. Done,” he revealed to the Daily Telegraph.
“Brendan pulled me and said: ‘I’ve just found out they’ve accepted a fee today.’
“He [Rodgers] said he couldn’t promise I would play every week. That’s understandable, but at my age [29] I need to play and there’s a World Cup coming up so I want to give myself a chance to get into the England squad.”
“I need to play. I could not go through that again. I’d missed three or four months when Brendan first came and the season before that I was in and out.
“I came back in the summer and with new players in the [Liverpool] team I was determined to have the attitude: ‘It’s up to you to try and get my shirt.’ And that’s how it felt until that conversation.
“It looked like I wasn’t going to play [at Liverpool] and with two years left on my contract I knew they wouldn’t offer me a new one.
“I didn’t want to sit around because Brendan will want to keep on spending and reinforcing and wanting his own team. So I had to make a decision and Sam Allardyce gave me the opportunity.”
Written by Alex Batt – @AlexBatt
