Chris Kirkland reveals all about his unsavoury Liverpool exit in an exclusive interview with the Liverpool ECHO
Chris Kirkland in training at Melwood with Xabi Alonso and Djimi Traore
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A managerial change can be a game-changer for players as an entire squad is given the opportunity to start from scratch and impress the new man in charge. Sometimes a player previously out of favour is given a new lease of life.
But for others, such a change can instead signal the beginning of the end ahead of their own eventual departure.
Manchester United will be hoping Kobbie Mainoo falls into the former category, having parted company with Ruben Amorim earlier this week. But when Liverpool last made their own managerial change, with Arne Slot succeeding Jurgen Klopp, the Dutchman’s arrival ultimately led to few starting opportunities for the likes of Harvey Elliott, Darwin Nunez and Wataru Endo.
Of course, this is nothing new. It’s the brutal, cut-throat nature of the sport. That’s football. It’s the way it is, was and always will be. Not every player can play and every manager has his own ideas and favoured players.
Chris Kirkland found that out the hard way following the arrival of Rafa Benitez in the summer of 2004.
The one-time England international was a boyhood Liverpool fan and joined the Reds in a £6m deal from Coventry City in the summer of 2001. Signed on the same day as Jerzy Dudek, he was Liverpool’s second-choice goalkeeper for the majority of his time at the club.
He had enjoyed successful stints as first choice under Gerard Houllier, only to see them come to an end prematurely because of untimely injury.
But following the arrival of Benitez, things changed for Kirkland at Liverpool. The Reds might have been the club of his dreams, but it did not take long for the keeper to realise the writing was on the wall as he struggled to adapt under the Spaniard.
“It was tough for a lot of us because a lot of the players were close to Gerard, and his backroom staff as well,” he admitted in an exclusive interview with the ECHO and Blood Red. “When he leaves, everyone goes as well, the whole backroom staff went.
“Rafa's Rafa, he's his own man. He brought different people and brought different goalie coaching, which I really struggled with.
“I'd gone from working with Joe Corrigan, with Jim Blythe at Coventry, a certain way. Hard work every single day, which I loved and what got me to Liverpool, to less tempo, less work.
“And it started to really affect me mentally more than anything because I thought, when I did play, I wasn’t sharp. I'd not done any training.
“The sessions were quite long. Rafa was a very good manager, but a few of the lads found it a little bit difficult.
“He's the manager, you have to adapt. And if you don't adapt, eventually, you'll be out the door. And that's what happened with me.”
Chris Kirkland realised his dream by playing for Liverpool
Chris Kirkland realised his dream by playing for Liverpool (Image: 2018 Liverpool FC)
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Kirkland continued: “I never swore. I never went in ranting and raving. I went in and tried to say: ‘I need more work!’
“It ended up with me and Paul Harrison, one of the young keepers, going down to a field near where I lived and doing extra sessions on our own. Because I just thought I've got to do something and he was the same.
“I would go and see Rafa, go and see Pako Ayestaran, his number two. The goalie coach didn't really talk much English, which didn't help at all. And I'd say: ‘Listen, I need more, I need more, I want more work, I want more training’.
“‘No, no, this is the way you do things now. This is the way we want you to train’. And like I said you either adapt or you leave.
“I tried so hard to adapt to it but I just felt myself, not as sharp, not as switched on as I should have been or I was before that and it became very very difficult.
“I also knew that, or thought that he didn't really fancy me from day one which happens in football. A manager comes in and he doesn't fancy players. That happens.
“But he had a way of doing things where I thought… well just say as it is. Don't beat around the bush or don't say this, don't say that.
“But that was Rafa's way of doing things. And it wasn't for me. I didn't enjoy it. Some of the players did. Some of the players didn't.
“But like I said, I've gone from Gordon Strachan to Gerard Houllier. Jim Blythe, goalie coach, Joe Corrigan. And this was just completely different.
“At the end of the day, they're the managers and you have to try and adapt to it. And if you don't, they'll get somebody else in and they did.”
After winning the Champions League in 2005, Benitez wasted no time in signing Pepe Reina from Villarreal in a £6m deal with it clear that the Spaniard would be his No.1.
Dudek might have been the hero in Istanbul, playing a starring role to see the Reds be crowned European champions, but that was not enough to retain his starting berth.
Consequently, in the same summer, it was made clear to Kirkland that he was no longer part of Liverpool’s plans.
He would spend the 2005/06 season on loan at West Bromwich Albion before joining Wigan Athletic on another temporary deal in the summer of 2006. The move was then made permanent the following October as his Anfield career came to an end once and for all in a £2.5m transfer.
Kirkland had no grievances about his Reds career being over, despite his allegiances to the club. He could not deny Reina’s quality and felt that it was the right time to move on.
But that did not stop him from feeling that he left on something of a sour note as he took issue with the way Benitez handled his exit.
“He signed Pepe Reina, it wasn’t a bad swap, was it?” he admitted. “He's an awesome goalkeeper, I can’t moan or say anything about that.
“But I knew my time up. I was getting my agent saying, ‘They want you out, Rafa doesn't want you anymore.’
“I was away on holiday at the time and I got a call from Liverpool saying Rafa wanted to see me. So I flew back, left my wife Leeona out there with friends.
“Walked into his office, sat down, and he says: ‘Right, you can leave, you can find another club’. That sort of thing.
“And I thought: ‘Couldn’t you have just told me that on the phone?’ But that was his way of proving he's the man in charge.
“So, I walked out, obviously slightly annoyed. Not with the fact that he wanted me out. Yes, I was upset with that, but I knew it was the time to go. But just the way that he did it.
“And even when I later went to Wigan, when I signed for them, there was still messing around. Wigan had agreed the deal, I wanted to go, but I got told it was Rafa that was holding the deal up.
“They made me basically wait for two days in the Wigan training ground. Everything was agreed apparently and then Paul Jewell got on the phone, came down to me and he said: ‘You're gonna have to listen to what they're saying here because you think I'm messing you around!’
“So I went up to Paul Jewell's office. He put it on loud speaker and told me to be quiet and not say anything.
“I listened to what Rafa was saying and some of the others, and they were saying: ‘Yeah, but we're not sure, we want more money’.
“And Paul Jewell just went: ‘The deal’s agreed. If it's not sorted and you don't ring back within five minutes, I'm gonna send Kirky back down the M58 and you can have him back as your player’.
“Put the phone down and he went: ‘I'm not gonna do that, don't worry! But watch’. Literally two or three minutes later, the phone went and the deal's done.
“I don't know if it was a power trip or whatever, but there were just a few things that turned it a little bit sour at the end.
“But nothing will turn me on this club, ever, because it's Liverpool and it's a team I love and it is a city I love.”
Chris Kirkland’s autobiography,‘'Keeping It Quiet' - The Chris Kirkland Story’, is out now. Copies are available atwww.curtis-sport.com.
Watch the full interview with the former Liverpool goalkeeper onthe Blood Red podcast YouTube channel.