Liverpool attacker Daniel Sturridge reflected on his loan spell at West Bromwich Albion and shared that he learnt from his brief spell at the club.
The 28-year-old, whose current contract sees him earn £120,000-a-wk (Source: The Times), shared that his time at the Baggies gave him a new perspective and made him realise his feelings for the Reds.
Sturridge had a disappointing loan spell at the Baggies in the second half of last season as he managed to only feature six times for them but claimed it was a good experience for him.
“I’ve never had any issues with anybody at the club (Liverpool),” Sturridge told ESPN.
“I’ve never had any issues with the manager, with the staff. I love it here. I love the players, but sometimes you have to do something for you.
“It’s the same as, I don’t know, if you’ve been with a woman for a long time, and then you’re like, ‘Man, I don’t feel like it’s working out anymore.’ But then you go away, like, ‘Me and my girl’s relationship was kind of sweet still. I might have to go back there.’ It’s kind of like that.
“Yeah, I chose to go on loan, it wasn’t a case of the club saying, ‘We want you to go on loan.’
“It was my decision, and the sporting director made it clear, ‘We don’t want you to leave,’ but I thought as if I had to leave to get my head right, to get away from the club to have a new lease, because I’d been there a long time, and I wasn’t playing as regular as I would have liked to.
“Going away to West Brom, I learned, too, you learn things about football, you learn about yourself.
“You get to assess the situation from the outside, looking in, when you’re on the inside, there’s no other perspective but what you see on the inside.
“When you’re on the outside you get to look at things a little differently, how you can help, how you can fit in, how you can do certain things differently, so it was a good experience for me.”
OPINION
To hear Sturridge talk positively about his loan spell at the Baggies is odd as he spent most of his time in the medical room. In fact his disappointing time at the Baggies, mostly due to injury, cost him any chance of going to World Cup with England and made sure that clubs weren’t going to be eagerly pursuing his services this summer. Yet if the 28-year-old did manage to gain anything from his loan spell then good for him. Clearly Sturridge feels his time away had an impact on him and he’s is ready to be a Reds player once again. The attacker has consistently impressed in pre-season so far and will need to keep fit as well as playing well in order to stake a place in Jurgen Klopp’s first-team places. No one can ever deny the 28-year-old’s ability but there will always be question marks about his fitness unless he goes a whole campaign without ending up spending significant time with the physio.
