Liverpool’s former midfield protege Jonjo Shelvey has opened up about his time at the club, as we prepare to face his current team Newcastle at the weekend.
Rafa Benitez signed Shelvey for Liverpool in 2010 from Charlton, but was sacked before he got a chance to work with the English midfielder.
As a result, it was Kenny Dalglish and Brendan Rodgers that Shelvey worked under while at the club, before the latter offloaded him in 2013.
But Benitez did eventually get to work with the midfielder, having taken over Newcastle in 2016, a few months after Shelvey arrived in the north east.
The player enjoyed his time at Anfield, but has claimed he had to leave in search of first-team football.
“It was a good, historic club,” Shelvey told NUFC TV, cited in the Shields Gazette. “It was good to play for.
“I had a few managers in my time there. It was not always easy, and obviously being a young lad moving from London to Liverpool it wasn’t that easy to go straight in and play, but I felt like I did well there.
“I had the choice whether to leave or stay. I was at the age where I wanted to play more and more games, and I ended up moving to Swansea from Liverpool.
“It was a massive club, and in hindsight it was a big call to move from Liverpool, but I felt it was the right one at the time.
“I feel like it paid off, as I ended up playing a lot more games.”
We like Shelvey as a player. He’s technically very sound and has a beautiful long-pass. He can be a little rash though and has the ability to make poor decisions that put his side in danger.
Still, we definitely undersold him for £5m, as in today’s market, an English midfielder aged just 25 (as he is now) is worth four times that at least.