Beth Lindop

It's that dramatic, my microphone's broken.

Today was meant to be my first day of annual leave, so that was fantastic when he decided to drop that announcement.

But yeah, I think as much as the timing of the announcement has maybe taken a few people by surprise, including me, I think the nature of it...

It's felt inevitable for a little while, I think.

Obviously, there was that big outburst, wasn't there, in December when he came out and accused the club of throwing him under the bus amidst a poor run of form.

He said his relationship had broken down with Arne Slott.

And at that point, it almost felt like the situation was irretrievable.

It's credit to him, credit to Slott as well, that they were able to find a resolution to that, that he's been back in the team.

He's been almost an ever-present since he came back from AFCON.

But his performances, as I've said,

as of those of the rest of the team, but his particularly, when you consider how high his standards are and how fantastic he was last season, which obviously led to him signing a new two-year contract in April, his performances have been way below those standards.

And I think we're maybe at a point now where you're starting to feel like father time is maybe catching him up.

And therefore, from a football perspective, it's maybe the best time

thing for both him and for Liverpool to move on in the summer.

But that's not to say that it won't be incredibly sad from a Liverpool perspective to see him go because he's a modern day great, one of Liverpool's best ever players.

So yeah, it's a huge story and a huge few months ahead.

I'm sure a lot of fans will want to give him a proper farewell over the next couple of months.

Well, that's the obvious answer, isn't it?

That's the place where he's been linked to for a long time.

I think it's quite interesting.