About leaving the club
“There was a moment when I didn’t feel loved and appreciated,” he says. “Not my teammates, not the people at Melwood. From them, I know … I can say they all love me and I love them. It was not from that side, more the other side.”
“I have to say also there was social media,” Wijnaldum says. “When it went bad, I was the player who they blamed – that I wanted to leave. Every day in training and in the games, I gave everything I had to bring it to a good end because, during the years, Liverpool meant so much to me and because of the way the fans in the stadium were treating me.
“My feeling was that the fans in the stadium and the fans on social media were two different kinds. The fans in the stadium always supported me. Even when they came back [after the Covid lockout], already knowing that I was going to leave, they still supported me and, in the end, they gave me a great farewell.
“On social media, if we lost, I was the one who got the blame. There was a moment when I was like: ‘Wow. If they only knew what I was doing to stay fit and play every game.’ Other players might have said: ‘OK, I am not fit.’ You get players in their last year who are like: ‘I’m not playing because it is a risk.’ I did the opposite.
“I didn’t always play good but, after the game, I could look in the mirror and say: ‘I gave it all. I trained hard to get better.’ Even with the physios … I took the most possible treatment I could get. I cannot remember when I had a day off because I played so many games and basically it was too much for the body but I did everything to stay fit.”
Asked to specify when the moment was that he felt unloved and unappreciated, he says: “Not towards the end, also before that. Basically in the last two seasons I had it a few times.” He was unhappy at how his part in the stand-off was sometimes portrayedand it added up to something that he could never truly escape.
“There was a story that Liverpool made an offer, I didn’t accept because I wanted more money and the fans made it like: ‘OK, he didn’t get the offer, so he doesn’t try his best to win games,’” Wijnaldum says. “Then the results were not really good and everything looked like it was against me. Some moments, it was like: ‘Wow, me again?’ It’s a collective. But my teammates never gave me the feeling that I let them down or I was taking the piss or something like that. With the team everything was fine.
“It was difficult to speak about football because every time, it was: ‘What are you going to do?’ Even my friends would read something and come to me and say: ‘Is this true? Oh, you are going to do this?’ I would say: ‘You will see what is going to happen.’ I just didn’t want to talk about it because it was: ‘My future this, my future that.’ That was basically my last season at Liverpool – the future of Gini Wijnaldum, not beautiful things on the pitch.”
About the CL semi vs Barca
“Klopp probably spoke to me [during half-time] but I was so angry [at having been dropped] that I didn’t listen to him,” Wijnaldum says. “The only moment I listened to him was when the morning training stopped and he said: ‘Gini, you have to be ready because I need you when you come on.’
“When I did come on, Pep Lijnders [the assistant manager] told me that when we built up I had to come into a back three to get the ball with the wing-backs higher. In my head, I was like: ‘No, no, no. I’m not going to do that. I just try to play up front, try to score goals.’ I was so angry that I wanted to do my own thing and, in the end, it helped.”
Sauce: https://www.theguardian.com/footbal...cial-media-i-was-blamed-if-liverpool-lost-psg
“There was a moment when I didn’t feel loved and appreciated,” he says. “Not my teammates, not the people at Melwood. From them, I know … I can say they all love me and I love them. It was not from that side, more the other side.”
“I have to say also there was social media,” Wijnaldum says. “When it went bad, I was the player who they blamed – that I wanted to leave. Every day in training and in the games, I gave everything I had to bring it to a good end because, during the years, Liverpool meant so much to me and because of the way the fans in the stadium were treating me.
“My feeling was that the fans in the stadium and the fans on social media were two different kinds. The fans in the stadium always supported me. Even when they came back [after the Covid lockout], already knowing that I was going to leave, they still supported me and, in the end, they gave me a great farewell.
“On social media, if we lost, I was the one who got the blame. There was a moment when I was like: ‘Wow. If they only knew what I was doing to stay fit and play every game.’ Other players might have said: ‘OK, I am not fit.’ You get players in their last year who are like: ‘I’m not playing because it is a risk.’ I did the opposite.
“I didn’t always play good but, after the game, I could look in the mirror and say: ‘I gave it all. I trained hard to get better.’ Even with the physios … I took the most possible treatment I could get. I cannot remember when I had a day off because I played so many games and basically it was too much for the body but I did everything to stay fit.”
Asked to specify when the moment was that he felt unloved and unappreciated, he says: “Not towards the end, also before that. Basically in the last two seasons I had it a few times.” He was unhappy at how his part in the stand-off was sometimes portrayedand it added up to something that he could never truly escape.
“There was a story that Liverpool made an offer, I didn’t accept because I wanted more money and the fans made it like: ‘OK, he didn’t get the offer, so he doesn’t try his best to win games,’” Wijnaldum says. “Then the results were not really good and everything looked like it was against me. Some moments, it was like: ‘Wow, me again?’ It’s a collective. But my teammates never gave me the feeling that I let them down or I was taking the piss or something like that. With the team everything was fine.
“It was difficult to speak about football because every time, it was: ‘What are you going to do?’ Even my friends would read something and come to me and say: ‘Is this true? Oh, you are going to do this?’ I would say: ‘You will see what is going to happen.’ I just didn’t want to talk about it because it was: ‘My future this, my future that.’ That was basically my last season at Liverpool – the future of Gini Wijnaldum, not beautiful things on the pitch.”
About the CL semi vs Barca
“Klopp probably spoke to me [during half-time] but I was so angry [at having been dropped] that I didn’t listen to him,” Wijnaldum says. “The only moment I listened to him was when the morning training stopped and he said: ‘Gini, you have to be ready because I need you when you come on.’
“When I did come on, Pep Lijnders [the assistant manager] told me that when we built up I had to come into a back three to get the ball with the wing-backs higher. In my head, I was like: ‘No, no, no. I’m not going to do that. I just try to play up front, try to score goals.’ I was so angry that I wanted to do my own thing and, in the end, it helped.”
Sauce: https://www.theguardian.com/footbal...cial-media-i-was-blamed-if-liverpool-lost-psg
