Former Liverpool winger Harry Wilson turns 26 today. While minutes have been in fairly short supply with Fulham so far this season, he has still played his part in a campaign which currently sees his side in the top half of the table.
The Wales international signed for Liverpool as an Under-9 and spent the remainder of his youth career training and developing at Melwood. Despite some promising loan spells, he never made a senior league apperance for the Reds.
Wilson finally left Anfield for good in 2021 with an initial loan deal followed by a permanent £12m transfer to Fulham.
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Jurgen Klopp still had hope for Wilson back in December 2019, when he said: “Of course he can [succeed at Anfield]. That’s why we loaned him, so he can make the steps. It would have been difficult for Harry and I would have loved to have had him here if we had another choice, especially when Shaq [Xherdan Shaqiri] was injured.
"You want to have these kinds of players but that is not the moment to decide. All the players we sent on loan have the chance to make it in the first team; otherwise we would have sold them.
“His shooting is world-class. Find me five players who shoot better than him, that is obvious, but the game is about more and that is what he has to improve and that is clear.
"To be involved as an offensive player you have to connect with other players. He has that, it is not like he doesn’t, but to get to the next level, he needs game-time at the highest level and that is why we loaned him to Bournemouth.”
Wilson spoke of his decision to leave Liverpool after more than 15 years at the club: “I’d been thinking that [it was time to go] for a couple of years, to be honest,” he told Goal in the summer of 2021. "I wouldn’t say it was an easy thing to do, but it is definitely the right thing for me. I know I’ve made the right decision.
“I’m not daft. I know the quality of that Liverpool squad, and I know I wasn’t going to go and play every week like I wanted to. The front three rarely miss a game, and their numbers are scary. I was never going to get in ahead of them."
Wilson made his debut for the Reds in the FA Cup third-round replay at Plymouth Argyle in January 2017 and waited a further three-and-a-half years for his next outing in October 2020 due to stints at different clubs.
The Welshman is now a Premier League player with Fulham and has made 18 league appearances this season, with 14 of them coming from the bench.
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