it was really tough and what happened was heart-breaking

I left club I loved to sign for Liverpool - it was really tough and what happened was heart-breaking

Former Liverpool midfielder Joe Allen - who retired from professional football earlier this month - opened up on his time with the Reds in a rare interview

Joe Allen of Swansea City arrives prior to the game during the Sky Bet Championship match between Swansea City and Oxford United FC at the Swansea.com Stadium (Image: 2025 Athena Pictures )

Joe Allen played his final game in professional football last weekend as the former Liverpool star hung up his boots after an 18-year career. The 35-year-old started his career with his boyhood club, Swansea City, and helped them win two promotions as the South Wales outfit worked their way up from League One to the Premier League.

After his first season in the English top-flight with the Swans, he followed manager Brendan Rodgers to Anfield in the summer of 2012 in a £15m deal. The Wales international then spent four years with the Reds, making 132 appearances and scoring seven goals.

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Reflecting on his move to Liverpool, the midfielder has admitted he found it gut-wrenching to leave his boyhood club but ultimately found it impossible to reject the opportunity to reunite with Rodgers on Merseyside.

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“It really was (tough to leave Swansea). I think it was – when a historic club like Liverpool comes calling, it’s almost impossible to turn it down,” Allen admitted. “Maybe there are some people who would be able to do that, but, no, it was a real conflict of emotions really.

“I was thrilled that a club like them would want to sign me but, in order to do that and make that happen, I was leaving the club I loved and the club I’d had – in such a short space of time really – so many good times, so many successes and, I was part of a group of players that were brilliant.

“It was great (to reunite with Rodgers). He was – I knew his methods well and he was signing a player who he knew really well, so that definitely was a big help, a big draw of course.

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“He’d done an incredible job in taking us (Swansea City) up, and then in that first season in the Premier League, some of the football we played and how well we did was… huge credit has to go to him.

“The combo of joining, like I said, a huge club like Liverpool and also a manager who knows me and who I had worked with before was an opportunity I found too good to turn down.

“It was a great summer and to get that opportunity to join one of the world’s biggest clubs was fantastic.”

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Allen was a member of the Liverpool side that agonisingly missed out on the Premier League title in 2013/14, after Steven Gerrard slipped to gift Chelsea a goal in a 2-0 defeat at Anfield before the Reds threw away a 3-0 lead away at Crystal Palace.

The midfielder, who scored in the 3-3 draw at Selhurst Park, insists it was the loss to Chelsea that proved most critical for Liverpool as he admitted missing out the title has felt even more painful as the years have worn on.

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“It was incredibly tough at the time, and even tougher as time’s gone on,” he conceded. “For me, that feels like the one that slipped away if you know what I mean. The chance of winning the Premier League, it’s heart-breaking really.

“The games, a lot of focus has been on the Palace game but the Chelsea game’s the real hammer blow. It put it back into Man City’s hands going into the last game of the season, so unfortunately we had to settle for second place, but it was a great season.

“We had the likes of Suarez, Gerrard, Coutinho, Sturridge, so many good players, just on fire, playing some unbelievable stuff, scoring so many goals.

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“To have been a part of that was great. If only we could have got the couple more points we needed over the season, it could have been a lot different.”

While Liverpool did not win the title during Allen’s time at the club, by finishing second they did qualify for the Champions League for the first time since 2009.

And the Welshman admits it was a dream come true to play in Europe’s elite competition, though conceded he was disappointed not to feature more prominently in the Champions League during his Liverpool career.

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"The Champions League, that was incredible. I’d grown up watching it religiously,” he told Swansea City’s YouTube channel in a rare interview last year. “Unfortunately, I didn’t get as many… You know, when you join a club like Liverpool, I would have hoped to have played in a lot more.

“We didn’t get out of the group-stages unfortunately that season, so it was a bit of a disappointment from that point of view.

“So, to have played those games, to have played Real Madrid home and away, from where I’d come from, it was hard to believe, but yeah, I loved it.”

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Allen left Liverpool for Stoke City in a £13m deal in the summer of 2016, with his last appearance for Reds coming in their Europa League final defeat to Sevilla.

He’d later return to his beloved Swansea on a free transfer in July 2022, and made 78 appearances, scoring four goals, during his second stint at the Liberty Stadium.

Announcing his retirement from football last week, the 35-year-old went on to make his final ever appearance in a 3-3 draw with Oxford City last weekend on the last day of the Championship season.

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And Allen admitted that he found it fitting that his career had come ‘full circle’ by finishing off back at his boyhood club.

“I am fortunate to be in a position where I am back at the club I love, and to have had the chance to come home for the last three seasons,” he said when announcing his retirement.

“To be announcing my retirement as a Swansea City player makes it extra special, I have been very fortunate. To finish my career where it started, it feels like everything has come full circle.

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“My career has surpassed everything I ever thought it could be, I am proud to have had the career and the experiences I have had, whether that has been at the clubs I played for, or representing Wales. I have been part of some incredible groups with wonderful supporters, I have been very lucky.

“The supporters, who from day one here at Swansea and the other clubs I played for, as well as with Wales, have been incredible. I cannot imagine a more lucky player and person. I am so proud and so glad to have had all the experiences I have had over my career.

“The (highlights) that spring straight to mind are winning the play-off final to get promoted to the Premier League, and then that first season in the Premier League and some of the victories we had at home - they were incredible moments.

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“And then the chance to play for Liverpool – such an historic club – and be playing alongside some of the greats and fighting for the title there.

“I had some really good years at Stoke, but the summer in France with Wales and qualifying for the World Cup are more memories and experiences where I find myself pinching myself.

“I would never have thought they were possible.”

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