Swansea City midfielder Jonjo Shelvey has admitted that he wasn’t forced out of Liverpool but he also revealed that he had to leave the club in order to play first-team football.
The England U-21 international was a fringe player at Anfield, making most of his appearances in the Europa League or the domestic cups, with only one appearance coming in the Premier League.
After completing his £5million move to Swansea, Shelvey has already cemented a place in Michaul Laudrop’s first-team and he has revealed that it was the right time to leave Anfield because he felt he would never be able to replace captain Steven Gerrard.
“It’s a big thing, trying to knock Steven out of the team,” Shelvey told the Daily Mail.
“If you had a really good game, the next week you might still be out because the likes of Gerrard are coming back. Imagine that. And you can’t argue with it – it’s crazy how good he is.”
Shelvey added: “Brendan told me I could stay there and see what happened. It really was my choice. I wasn’t pushed.
“But I wanted to play football. I would hate to be one of those sitting on my money. It is in my character, the way I was brought up. Even Brendan said, ‘You’re not one of these squad players happy to stand around’.”
“It’s about confidence and knowing you’ll get game time if you do well”.
“I wanted to play, to get back the status that I used to have. Now I am playing.”
Written by Alex Batt – @AlexBatt
