JAKE LIVERMORE
Why the West Brom midfielder feels so settled at the Hawthorns
JAKE Livermore might not have been a celebrity at the time, but he said to Harry Redknapp ‘You can get me out of here’.
Livermore was fighting for a future at Spurs when Redknapp was manager.
No witchetty grubs or snakes - unless you count the agents - but Livermore had been out on loan more times than Anne Hegerty ducked trials and he wanted a career.
MK Dons, Crewe, Derby, Peterborough, Ipswich, Leeds and Hull, before turning the last one permanent, Livermore had set up temporary camp at all of them.
“Harry Redknapp is the one who gave me a career,” says Livermore who later had to rebuild his life when tragedy cost him his son Jake Junior four years ago.
Livermore took to cocaine he was so unable to cope with the death of his son at birth but, with psychological help, he and his family have come through it.
He has just signed a new contract that will keep him at West Brom until 2022 and there is a stability and homeliness about his life that Livermore relishes.
There are moments when that is tested like at West Ham almost a year ago when a Hammers fan made gross comments about his son and Livermore confronted the moron, who was banned.
After that was ‘taxi-gate’ when Livermore and West Brom team- mates Jonny Evans, Gareth Barry and Boaz Myhill helped themselves to a Barcelona taxi.
Drink, stupidity and a lot of frustration with the way Alan Pardew was managing West Brom out of the Premier League all had parts to play.
Pardew was a disaster when he succeeded Tony Pulis and West Brom became an embarrassment as Pardew won one out of 18 league games, losing 13.
“Ultimately, it’s about getting the best out of the players,” says Livermore. “I believe last season we were low on confidence, we lost a few games on the bounce and there is more than one way to skin a cat. Some players needed an arm round their shoulder rather than an earful of what they were doing wrong.
“Perhaps someone telling them what they are doing right, building them up. I think that was one of the problems last season.
Problem
“Hindsight’s a great thing, but, to look back, that was one thing that really cost us - the fact that we could have done with someone who lifted us a little bit rather than come in and tell us everything that we couldn’t do.
“It comes down to the human element of how you are treated.”
Darren Moore succeeded Pardew and, as Jungle King Redknapp would appreciate, won virtually all the stars, losing only one of six games through encouragement, knowledge and a smile as West Brom went down with a bit of pride attached.
“I watched the final couple of episodes of I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here! and I’m glad Harry came across as good a person as he is,” says the 29-year-old.
“He was just ‘him’ on I’m a Celebrity. There was no acting, nothing false. It was one of the things I liked about him as a manager, what he said was what he felt. Man to man, you can’t really argue with that.
“It’s important to me the way you are dealt with by managers. Going back, I remember telling Harry Redknapp when I was a youngster coming through at Spurs… I was offered a loan move to West Ham at one point.
“It was a black and white conversation in terms of what I was feeling and Harry said I was in his plans. He said ‘You need to stay and you will get your opportunity. When you do, take it. If not, then we’ll readdress it’.
“That sort of conversation made Harry Redknapp the manager he was because there was no beating around the bush.”
Livermore, who cost West Brom £10m nearly two years ago, played 36 games for Spurs, then played in the Premier League again for Hull having got promotion with them and could be back in the Premier League now because Crystal Palace wanted him in the summer. But he said no.
“I had an opportunity to go to the Premier League, but I saw where West Brom wanted to go this season and it was something I wanted to be part of.
“I thought I owed it to the club, I thought I owed it to my team-mates and I thought I owed it to myself to be honest, to give myself that test to stay here and give myself a challenge.
Opportunity
“Status-wise, it makes no difference to me whether I’m a Premier League player, a Champions League player, a Europa League player or an international player. I do the best I can in the situation I’m at. Staying here at West Brom had a big part to do with being content and happy.
“Plus, in the way we went down last season, we owe it to each other and we want to stick together and get back up as a team. “We all talked about it. We are men, we are friends, teammates, we run for each other, we tackle, we fill in for each other, we eat together, we are as close as close can be. “The conversations were ‘Let’s stay, boys, and let’s get up’. There were opportunities and I understand people leaving, it’s the nature of the game. “I loved Hull, a homely club and one I always keep an eye on. It was good to go to work every day and be part of that community. I get that same feeling here at West Brom. We are on the road to something good. “For me personally, it’s important to feel content at a club. I’d been on the road since I was a kid, as I’ve said, not settled at a home for a few years. But this feels ‘home’. It’s a place where you want to pay back. “The feeling I get here from West Brom helps deal with what has happened in my private life. Footballers? We are just people, you need to feel settled to get the best out of each other. It’s easy when someone is in the public eye to forget about their feelings or why they are not quite performing to the level they are expected to be at. “But, touch wood, that’s one we haven’t got to go into because West Brom has become a fantastic place to come and do my work. It’s a foundation to build on and to move forward, both personally and as a club. “It’s why I’ve signed a new contract. The goal is to get up, get promoted.”