Former Liverpool forward wanted to leave Liverpool after training with Mo Salah
After training alongside Mohamed Salah and Sadio Mane, Nottingham Forest forward Taiwo Awoniyi expressed a desire to depart from Liverpool.
Due to a groin ailment, Awoniyi was unable to attend his most recent reunion with his old team, Liverpool, at Anfield on Sunday.
The Nigerian international got off to a great start to the season, scoring in each of his team’s opening three games and then dishing out two consecutive assists
This stretch of play was only a continuation of his season-ending six goals and one assist from Forest’s final six games last year.
After settling into Forest, Awoniyi thought back to his six-year stint at Liverpool, when he was never on the field because he was not given a work visa.
Liverpool did, in fact, sell Awoniyi to Union Berlin in a £6.5million deal in July 2021, following a succession of loans in Germany, Holland and Belgium.
Awoniyi claimed that training with the likes of Mohamed Salah and Sadio Mane helped him realise it was time to leave Liverpool.
“The training sessions, wow! I knew that this is the kind of training that you win something from!” Awoniyi told Livepoolfc.com. “You don’t train like that and then at the end of the season you get nothing.
“For me as a player, that was the kind of environment I had always wanted. But in life sometimes you have to make tough decisions, and I knew for me that I needed to go and play every week.
You look at the time, there was Salah, Mane, Firmino and others. I knew the chances (to play) were very, very slim.
I knew I needed to get to a place where I was playing every week. It was hard (to leave), but it was a decision I had to make.”
Nevertheless, Awoniyi is still grateful to his former club for the role they played in his career.
He explained: “For me, going through all those clubs and all those stages, it was all with the aim of one day being back in the Premier League.
I think in the end it was worth it, but I can say it was a tough journey.
“Liverpool, I always say, is a family club. You develop as a person as well as a footballer, and I give so much credit to Liverpool for the way they looked after me, all the time I was away. I’m forever grateful for that.
“It was an important period, really good for me, and it was a big reason I was able to develop into the player and the person I am.”
Liverpool have already decided on whether to sell Mohamed Salah to the Saudi Pro League in January.
In the summer Salah was the subject of interest from the Saudi Arabia, with Al Ittihad even making a verbal offer of £150million for the player at the close of the European transfer window.
However, Liverpool rejected the proposal, which is said to have been £100million up front with a further £50million in add-ons, and insisted the Egypt international was not for sale.
Yet it is widely thought that Liverpool have not yet shaken off the threat of losing Salah to the Saudi Pro League in the coming windows.
Indeed, Football Insider even claimed in September that Al Ittihad were plotting a sensational bid worth £225million for Salah in the final days of the Saudi transfer window.
While such a bid was never made, a ‘well-placed source’ has told the publication that there remains “huge interest” in Salah from the Saudi Pro League, with the division keen to make the attacker one of the jewels in their crown in 2024.
However, Liverpool will allegedly not sell Salah in January irrespective of the offers that come in for him.
It is believed that the Reds owners consider the 31-year-old to be not for sale, even if the player pushes for a move.
Despite the speculation surrounding his future, Salah has been outstanding for Liverpool in the opening stages of the campaign, having claimed 10 goals and four assists in 13 appearances across all competitions this season.
The Liverpool star, who earns a reported £350,000-a-week on Merseyside is under contract there until June 2025.
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