Joe Allen opens up on his decision to leave Liverpool, going as far to say that it was ‘obvious’ that he ‘had to leave.’
Joe Allen didn’t mince words in discussing his Liverpool exit. He knew it was time to go.
The Welsh midfielder had fallen down the pecking order for Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool, far away from Emre Can and wasn’t really threatening Jordan Henderson and James Milner. So when Stoke City came calling this summer, it wasn’t a difficult decision for Allen to make the move.
“I think it had come to the point where I needed to move on,” Allen said, via BBC Sport. “Personally, it was pretty obvious. Any player will tell you regular football makes tonnes of difference to the way you perform and the way you feel out on the football pitch.”
Allen just wanted to play regularly, he didn’t want to sit on the bench any longer.
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“It comes to a certain stage in your career where if it’s not happening then you have to go and seek it out,” said Allen. “Hopefully I will get much more game time now and I think that is going to be really important for me in my international career as well.”
Towards the end of last season, Allen was really turning his form up but it wouldn’t get him in the team when Can, Milner and Henderson were fit. It seemed there wasn’t much he could do to convince Klopp that he should be a regular member of the starting XI.
Then he showed the world what regular playing time and a key role to a team could do for him this summer with Wales where he shined, and a £13million move to Stoke was a reasonable exit.
Allen seems to be enjoying life away from Liverpool, as he well should be.