Speaking on BT Sport, Jordan Henderson has opened up on how he almost left Liverpool for Fulham back in 2012.
The story goes that the Reds were willing to offer Henderson to the London club in a part-exchange deal for Clint Dempsey, and the midfielder was given the option as to whether or not he’d leave.
Henderson was told by, then manager, Brendan Rodgers that his choices were to leave or not play as much football as he’d want to, and the England ace says he was devastated by this situation.
As we all know, Henderson opted to stay and the rest, as they say, is history.
What’s been said?
Henderson opened up on almost joining Fulham.
“I had a conversation with Brendan in the hotel and to be fair to Brendan he gave us the option it was more the club that was willing to let us go. Brendan said ‘look it’s down to you, you won’t be starting as much as you like, but I’ll try to help you improve, you’re still young and if you improve you’ll play more as time goes on,’” Henderson said.
“So, I went back to my room, cried a little bit and I was devastated really. From that moment on I just tried, it wasn’t an option to leave because I hadn’t been at the club for long and I worked so hard to get there so I wasn’t just going to leave. I said straight away I wasn’t going anywhere and I’d do everything I could to get into the team and prove people wrong. From that day I gave everything on the training pitch and in the gym.”
Lucky escape
Liverpool are incredibly lucky that Henderson decided to stay and fight for his place.
Think about it, swapping Henderson for Dempsey would probably have gone down as one of the worst deals in Premier League history.
Dempsey would eventually move to Tottenham where he was underwhelming, lasting just one season before heading to MLS, while Henderson is a Champions League-winning captain and a former FWA Footballer of the Year winner.
Henderson may have been devastated at the time, but now he’s one of Jurgen Klopp’s most trusted players.
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