Midfielder-cum-defender opens up over departure.
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Barcelona star Javier Mascherano has opened up over the reasons behind his departure from Liverpool in the summer of 2010 by claiming that he was misled by the club, Goal.com reports.
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The Argentine international left Anfield in slightly acrimonious circumstances after reports had suggested that that he refused to take part in a game against Manchester City in order to push through a move to the Nou Camp.
However, Mascherano has denied those claims by insisting that the club’s hierarchy are actually the ones to blame for how events unfolded.
“I didn’t want to say anything at the time because of my respect for Liverpool,” he said.
“Maybe that was a mistake because it allowed other people to say bad things about me. But I do not regret it.
“Liverpool is a special club and it does not deserve to be treated badly. The people who were there at the time – the manager and Christian Purslow – have now gone but they know the truth.
“When I went back to Liverpool for pre-season I had a lot of meetings with them and they were promising a lot of things to me but never kept their word.
“I did not wake up one day and refuse to play. In the game before [Manchester] City we played against Arsenal and I gave everything because I was wearing the Liverpool shirt.
“Why would I do that and risk getting injured when I knew that Barcelona were close to signing me and then refuse to play in another game? That doesn’t make any sense.
“We had been talking about completing the transfer for 20 days because the club also wanted to make it happen, but then they started to make things difficult for me.”
Mascherano also revealed that a fallout with the club’s management team prevented him from making a proper goodbye to the fans.
“The people treated me really well and I would never want to let them down,” he added. “I wanted to leave in another way, but they didn’t give me the chance to.
“That is the truth. It left me with a bad feeling. My time at the club was over and I needed to move on, but I also needed to leave the club in a good way and that wasn’t allowed to happen.”
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