‘That’s Hendo’s problem’ – Jurgen Klopp explains why it’s ‘better’ Jordan Henderson left Liverpool after honest talks

Jurgen Klopp has admitted that it was the right time for captain Jordan Henderson to leave Liverpool following private talks about the midfielder’s future this summer.

Henderson completed a controversial £12m switch to Saudi Arabian side Al-Ettifaq in July and set tongues wagging during the international break when, in an interview with The Athletic, he suggested that Reds boss Klopp had not made him feel wanted at Anfield.

Sharing his version of events, the German revealed that Henderson had said the truth when explaining what the pair had spoken about when discussing the 33-year-old’s Anfield future.

Having been asked about Henderson’s interview, here is Klopp’s answer in full…

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“I didn’t read the interview, I only heard at first then I read it, because Tony (Barrett – Liverpool press officer) spoke about it,” the Klopp told reporters. “I thought maybe I should make my own opinion.

“Hendo said the truth, in all departments, that’s how it was. We had our talks and I told Hendo I wanted him to stay but we had to talk in these conversations as well about the possibility of not playing regularly. I told him we bring in players and stuff like this.

“You don’t have these talks and say, ‘Hendo, you will play’. I cannot have a talk before a season and tell a player they will have 50 games this season, 100 per cent, because I don’t know that. It all depends on performance.

“And if Hendo would have performed, he would have had maybe 50 games, absolutely fine, absolutely possible. But in the specific situation with the relationship we had, I thought it was important that we speak about everything.

“Which means what happens if… Because Hendo is a fantastic player, I will love him forever, super guy, but he’s not great when he’s not playing, let me say it like that.

“Milly was like that when I arrived here and Lucas Leiva was like this. You always thought they are great guys but then the moment they see the line-up and they are not involved, they turn into Jekyll and Hyde, it’s unbelievable.

“That’s Hendo’s problem, so you have to talk about that. He was my captain for seven-and-a-half, nearly eight years, so I had to talk about that because I don’t want to wake up one morning and need to lock horns with each other just because he thought he would start and I tell him he isn’t.

“Obviously [for] Hendo, in his ear and mind, that meant, ‘okay, he doesn’t want me here’. I understand it 100 per cent but we clarified that.

“But anyway, what he said is that if I would have told him: ‘Hendo, stay here, you will be the main man in midfield’, Hendo would have stayed, that’s the truth. That’s 100 per cent the truth.

“But I couldn’t say that, as much as I wanted him to stay, I couldn’t say that. So that’s why it was better that Hendo moved on. That’s it.

“There’s not a bit of bad blood or whatever. He is the captain of the most successful team this club saw in the Premier League era and rightly so, and he’s a sensational player.

“I wish him only the best and, when he comes here, from my point of view he gets a real farewell, everything. There’s nothing to misunderstand from that point of view, 100 per cent.”