Henderson: The ‘surreal’ day I signed for Liverpool…

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Liverpool signed Jordan Henderson way back in 2011, and this is his sixth season at the club already.

Despite some early criticism, Henderson found his feet and excelled during 2013/14, the campaign in which we battled for the title, and a strong following term earned him our captaincy.

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He’s now an automatic pick at the base of our midfield, with Jurgen Klopp adapting him from a box-to-box player into a deep-lying, orchestrating one.

The skipper has explained what happened six years ago when we decided to sign him… Within 24 hours, he’d found about our interest, that Sunderland had accepted an offer and then travelled to Liverpool to pen a deal!

Henderson told The Players Tribune: “Moving clubs is part of the game. In June 2011, I got a call from an official at Sunderland while I was having lunch with my girlfriend and some mates.

“On the call, they told me that a deal with Liverpool had been agreed on, and that I should head down that way to agree on personal terms.

“A few hours later, my dad and I were in the car driving down the M6 to Liverpool. We got in late and the next morning I was at Melwood. By the afternoon, I was officially a Liverpool player. It was kind of surreal.

“One of the reasons Liverpool was significant to me was because it meant sharing a dressing room with Steven Gerrard.

“He was my favourite England player when I was growing up. He has also been a big influence on my career, first of all from afar and watching him on TV and then even more so when I got to know him properly.

“It was a bit strange at first being around Stevie — he was such a big player for both Liverpool and England.

“However, he’s the kind of person who makes you feel relaxed pretty quickly. Before long being around him was completely normal, and he was a great person to learn from day to day at the club.”

The Englishman’s been injured recently, but is expected to return for the Merseyside Derby – although with Emre Can back in form – it’ll be interesting to see who Klopp opts for.

The pair have struggled when deployed together this term, with both preferring the role at the base of the midfield trio.

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