Alberto Aquilani has spoken about the reasons for his exit from Liverpool after having been declared as a flop.

The Italian was signed from Roma by former manager Rafa Benitez for around £ 20 million. It was seen as a bargain at that time since Aquilani was one of the young and upcoming midfielders in Italy with a lot of talent, although he had a reputation for being injured too long. Benitez was hoping that his scientific approach to the game would help alleviate the injury worries for the midfielder but it was not the case. Aquilani was injured for a majority of his Liverpool career.

This led to poor form and subsequent loans spells back to Italy with the likes of Juventus. In the end, a permanent move away from Anfield was to be the player’s choice. It was thought that Liverpool cut their losses by selling the midfielder to Fiorentina in 2012. Aquilani, though, has revealed that he did not want to leave Liverpool at the time of the sale and only the prospect of returning to his home country interested him to secure a move to Fiorentina. After spending three years with the Italian club, Aquilani moved to Portugal with Sporting CP while he is now playing with Pescara.

Aquilani stands to make his debut for Pescara in the game against Inter Milan this weekend.“I had a great time with Liverpool and I had the honour of wearing a special shirt and playing in an incredible stadium. Then I decided to leave, and perhaps I was a bit hasty.Maybe I should have stayed and continued playing in the Premier League, but I wanted to come back to Italy for family reasons. Nobody forced me out. It was (Pescara coach Massimo) Oddo who ignited the spark. I took this chance of joining Pescara in a flash,” said Aquilani.