Liverpool captain Jordan Henderson has revealed he was brought to tears after learning Liverpool attempted to offload him at the start of the 2012-13 season.
The former Sunderland midfielder had arrived at Anfield in the summer of 2011 in a deal worth a reported £20m, but was one of a number of Kenny Dalglish signings who struggled to deliver as the Reds laboured to an eighth place finish.
With Brendan Rodgers arriving in 2012 and making signings of his own, Henderson was linked with a departure to Fulham as Liverpool looked to add Cottagers forward Clint Dempsey to their ranks.
He was given the option to stay and fight, though, completing a decade at Anfield last summer as part of a squad continuing to achieve "special" things, and he credits Rodgers with helping give him the motivation and education to save his Reds career after fearing it was over almost as quickly as it had begun.
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Rodgers had made Joe Allen one of his first Liverpool signings, and the presence of long-serving midfielders Steven Gerrard and Lucas Leiva alongside the new arrival meant Henderson would face a fight for minutes.
The former Sunderland man was involved in the Reds' Europa League campaign, though, and it was before one of those games that the manager broke the bad news to him.
"I can remember it like it was yesterday," Henderson told Rio Ferdinand on BT Sport.
"It was just before we played Hearts at Anfield, and we had a game on the night. I had a conversation with Brendan at the hotel the day of the game, and to be fair to Brendan he sort of gave me the option. It was more the club that was willing to let me go.
"Brendan said ‘listen, it’s down to you, you’re not going to be starting as much as what you’d have liked but I’ll try to help you improve on what I need you to improve on. You’re still young, and if you do that then maybe you get more game time as time goes on’.
"So basically I went back to my room, cried a little bit and was devastated really, but from that moment on I just tried to… It wasn’t really an option for me to leave, because I hadn’t been at the club very long, and I’d worked extremely hard to get there."
Having been given a second chance, Henderson took Rodgers' words on board and fought to become a better player, starting just 16 league games that season but playing a much bigger role the following season as Liverpool came desperately close to winning the title.
"I said straight away ‘listen, I ain’t going anywhere, I’ll do everything I can to get in your team and I’ll prove people wrong’," he explained.
"From that moment, every day in the gym I’d give everything, every day on the training pitch I’d give everything. Just focus on myself, how I can improve, how I can be better.
"Brendan helped us a lot tactically [and] I really think back then I could improve a lot tactically - I was good at box-to-box, I was very physical and decent technically, but the tactical elements I wasn’t really taught that much, especially of what Brendan wanted.
"He brought me into his office, sat me down, showed… where he wanted us with and without the ball. I felt that helped massively, helped me understand football even more, and from that moment on I just grew in confidence as time went on."
