Leighton Clarkson makes Blackburn Rovers revelation after early Liverpool return
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Aberdeen loanee Leighton Clarkson has revealed former loan club Blackburn Rovers wanted him to stay throughout the 2021/22 campaign but he wanted to leave Ewood Park to play more regularly, speaking to Red TV.
Following Harvey Elliott’s successful spell at Ewood Park during 2020/21, Jurgen Klopp’s side allowed Clarkson to link up with the Championship side last term with Rovers managing to bring him in within their limited budget.
Unfortunately for him though, the presence of Lewis Travis, Joe Rothwell and John Buckley proved to be detrimental to his playing time as he made just seven competitive appearances during his spell under Tony Mowbray.
Spending much of his time at Ewood Park as an unused substitute, the 21-year-old’s career looked to have stalled with the second-tier side and with this, he was recalled in January with the player managing to win more game time in Liverpool’s under-23s team.
He has since been sent out to Scottish Premiership outfit Aberdeen where he has been able to make a real impression, appearing 14 times, scoring four goals and grabbing two assists in the process.
Clarkson has since revealed that Blackburn wanted him to stay put in Lancashire for the remainder of last term – but he was desperate to get away following his failure to become a key first-teamer there.
He said (via the Press and Journal): “They wanted me to stay but I couldn’t go through a year of not playing which is why I went back to the under-23s to get to grips with playing football again and get my fitness back.
“I could have stayed and sat on the bench for a year but I didn’t want to. I wanted to play men’s football and managed to get a good loan here (Aberdeen).
“So far I’m really liking it.”
The Verdict:
For the player’s sake, he needed to get out because it didn’t look as though he was going to be a key first-teamer unless there were a couple of injuries in midfield and he couldn’t rely on that to win game time.
Blackburn probably wanted to keep him because of what he could do going forward, something he has showcased north of the border this season, because there were no guarantees that Buckley was going to stay fit and in form.
After all, the latter was still inexperienced and this is why a potential competitor like Clarkson could have been a decent asset to have throughout the season to keep him on his toes.
Rovers may be wondering whether that extra competition would have made a difference during the latter stages of the season when the wheels started to come off their promotion push.
But both parties have moved on since then and for Clarkson’s sake, you just hope he continues to thrive this season because at 21, he may need to look for a permanent move elsewhere at some point if he wants to be playing at a senior level regularly.
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