Newcastle United vice-captain Jonjo Shelvey has recently revealed that it was a mistake to leave Merseyside giants Liverpool when he moved away from the Anfield outfit in 2013.
Shelvey had initially signed for Premier League side Liverpool from Charlton Athletic under then manager Roy Hodgson in 2010. Despite been given an opportunity at a young age, the midfielder grew increasingly frustrated with a lack of game time at Anfield.
Liverpool also opted to send Shelvey out on loan to Blackpool during the 2011-12 season to garner some experience and return to the club.
Shelvey signed a contract extension with Liverpool early in 2012 and was tipped by some to be the next Steven Gerrard at the Merseyside club. However, the following year, the combative midfielder opted to call it quits with Liverpool and signed for Swansea City in search of regular football.
Although Shelvey was able to get more football at the Liberty Stadium, the 28-year-old English star explained that he would be had a better situation if he remained at Liverpool for another season or two. Under Roy Hodgson, there wasn’t much progress made and the Englishman was replaced by Kenny Dalglish following a run of poor results
While speaking to Sky Sports, the Magpies’ star midfielder stated that he was only a young footballer when he left in order to get regular football elsewhere, “I was only 21 when I left, I don’t think you would find many other players who go there at 17 and leave at 21 and I think that speaks a lot of what I’m like as a character. I wasn’t happy playing one or two games and then coming out of the team. I wanted to carry on playing week in, week out. When you’re playing once and then not playing for six games, I don’t care what any footballer says, you don’t feel involved. You don’t feel part of the team.
He added that in hindsight he should have stayed at Anfield, “I think that was the feeling I wanted but, in hindsight, should I have stayed? Probably, yeah. Even if it was only for another year or two, just to see how things changed. But it is what it is at the end of the day.”
