Simon Mignolet has opened up on his decision to leave Liverpool in the summer of 2019, admitting he took a big risk in leaving the Reds for Club Brugge. Signed in a £9m deal from Sunderland in the summer of 2013, the Belgian initially lost his place to Loris Karius in January 2018 before spending the following season as back-up to Alisson Becker.

The Belgian was part of the Liverpool squad that won the Champions League under Jurgen Klopp in 2018/19, but he only made two appearances in all competitions that season.

While he had no complaints about being behind Alisson in the pecking order, Mignolet was desperate to move on after 18 months on the sidelines.

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“At that moment in time, it was already more than a year and a half on the bench,” he recalled on Ben Foster’s Fozcast. “You know how it is, you want to play.

“And I also had the feeling that anywhere else, I could do a good job because I was in the prime of my career as a goalkeeper.

“I had two or three years left on my deal when Alisson got signed, and he’s still there now. I wasn’t going to sit on the bench for the next two or three years because then my career was over. That’s not for me.

“I’m still playing now and I still want to be playing. At that moment in time, it was the same. We needed to find a solution, a decision.”

Mignolet would eventually return to Belgium to sign for Brugge in a £6.4m deal in August 2019, having been on the bench for Liverpool’s Community Shield loss to Man City.

The Reds, who would go on to win the Premier League that season, replaced him by signing Adrian on a free transfer. The Spaniard ironically went on to make 18 appearances in his first season with the club after Alisson suffered a calf injury on the opening day of the season.

Looking back, Mignolet admits it was a gamble returning to Belgium, but believes it was the best decision he could have made despite not necessarily being an ‘ideal’ move at that time.

But he revealed his Liverpool exit was not an easy transfer to facilitate with the club’s asking price and his wage demands scuppering interest from elsewhere, prompting him to reconsider an approach from Brugge.

“The main issue at that moment in time was because Liverpool were really happy with me as a number two,” he said. “Why? Because I’m a hard trainer, I’m a good guy in the dressing room, I didn’t cause any havoc, I had a good relationship with Alisson and with the goalie coach.

“Every single day in training, I wasn’t a difficult guy. I was hard-working and that’s what you need basically as a number two. Somebody who’s there, ready to play, experienced enough to be able to play and not causing havoc.

“For me, it was nice to hear that but on the other side, if Liverpool then says, ‘Oh, you can’t go because you still have two years left on your contract’.

“And you have to cost that kind of amount for a goalkeeper who is turning 31, 32, it’s difficult then to find a club that is going to invest, first, for a transfer fee that Liverpool is asking and secondly to cover your wages because you still have a deal for two years. Then to be able to find a club was not easy.

“Every time when you go to a club, they say, ‘Yeah, but he has to give up so much of his salary,’ or, ‘Liverpool is asking too much’. The longer it takes and the less you play, then the question is, ‘Yeah, but he hasn’t played for a year and a half’.

“Go on and find a club. Always there was interest and everybody was interested in signing me, but not to the level that they were going to cover my wages and the transfer fee for Liverpool.

“So you already had to find a really good club that was able to invest in it and believe in you to sign that deal. So it was really difficult, that transfer window, to find a club.

“And the longer it took, the more difficult it became because Liverpool also needed to find a solution the moment I left.”

He continued: “Towards the final stages of the transfer window, Brugge, because I know the president and sporting director really well from my time with the national team, they were already putting phone calls in from the winter, ‘What do you think about coming back?’

“But I always put that aside because coming back to Belgium gives me some sort of risk. I was 32.

“Now looking back, it was the best choice I could have made but at that moment in time, it was a risk because if I would have come back too early to Belgium and it wouldn’t work out the way everybody wanted, then after two or three years and you’re only 35, then you’re in trouble or a problem situation.

“Ideally, you would have made that decision later in your career when you were 34 or 35 to come back to Belgium, and then still play another two or three years until the end of your career.”