Sardar Azmoun was a player talked about often here in the Transfer Tavern during the winter months with Liverpool fans quite interested in the ‘Iranian Lionel Messi’ as their side reportedly tracked him.
The Rostov ace, who faced Manchester United in the Europa League recently, has been causing quite a stir in Russia’s top tier, with his neat skills and goalscoring prowess having led to the aforementioned comparisons with the Argentine hero.
The rumour, however, died out as Jurgen Klopp’s side wet through the mid-season window without making a notable addition to their squad, and now Azmoun, speaking to the Qatar Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy’s website, has revealed that he turned down the chance to relocate to Merseyside:
“There were talks of Liverpool having expressed an interest in me during the past winter transfer window,
“However, I did not feel the time to move was right. I would have ended up playing a few games and then spent a great deal of time on the bench as Liverpool were only looking to fill a void for a particular part of their season.
“I want to move to a big club to develop as a player and therefore I will time the move with great precision. I am sure I will be playing for a top European club in the near future.”
And these quotes have been met by some anger from Reds fans, with some claiming that the club didn’t do enough to lure him to Anfield…
Sardar Azmoun says he felt #LFC were only looking to fill a January void. This looks like WE DIDN’T SELL HIM THE PROJECT WELL.
— Saurabh Mishra (@SaurabhM16) March 21, 2017
Sardar Azmoun quotes. Looks like we badly sold him the idea of a transfer to us pic.twitter.com/u5LaECQZwB
— Raj Chohan (@rajsinghchohan) March 21, 2017
@LivEchoLFC FSG are taking the club NOWHERE and do not have the ability to land top players. John W Henry needs to sell up FAST.
— FSG OUT (@DavidVaughan5) March 21, 2017
@LivEchoLFC Sigh….will be nice to start reporting on the players who wanted to join us and we said no to
— Raveen Bala (@raveengaya) March 21, 2017
Alas, some others believe that Azmoun made the right decision and that he would not have fitted in anyway…
@IndigoLFC he doesn’t seem bitter at all. In fact it seems like he had a good understanding of the situation and made a smart decision.
— Sean (@JigglyLFC) March 21, 2017
@IndigoLFC probably true though, as soon as Mané was back he’d be on the bench. Can’t really blame him
— Archie (@CallingOnCout) March 21, 2017
I like those quotes from Azmoun, seems like his priorities are in order. We are a risk we make superstars but we’ve ruined lots of players.
— 6th Place Finish (@MethodicallyRed) March 21, 2017
@LivEchoLFC Don’t think he would of been the right guy for our team anyway tbh
— Dean (@_LFCdean) March 21, 2017
