Liverpool star outlines summer plans as transfer decision awaits - 'I’ve earned this'
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Stephenson is currently on loan with Scottish Premiership club Dundee United, having spent the last 18 months at Tannadice on two separate loan deals.Stephenson has earned minutes during the last two pre-season campaigns for Liverpool under head coach Arne Slot before subsequently going on loan to Scotland. The versatile defender, 22, will return to Liverpool this summer when his current loan deal expires and has already explained why he has hopes of getting more minutes under his belt thanks to this summer’s World Cup.“Obviously you can’t predict what’s around the corner, especially in football – it’s a weird sport at times,” Stephenson told Liverpoolfc.com.FOLLOW OUR LIVERPOOL FC FACEBOOK PAGE!
All the latest news and analysis from Anfield on the Liverpool Echo's dedicated LFC Facebook page“I’ve got seven games left here now. Take a nice little break in the summer and then try to come back and hit the ground running in pre-season and see where that takes me.”He added: “There’s going to be a big number of first-team lads that are going to be away at the World Cup.“The chances of going away to America [for pre-season] might increase and maybe the number of minutes might increase than what I might have had in the past couple of years while I’ve been away.“If I’m lucky enough to get that opportunity then absolutely brilliant, yeah, and I’ll have felt like I’ve earned this from my hard work again this season.”Stephenson is yet to make a competitive appearance for Liverpool but has featured 66 times for Dundee United over the last two seasons, including 32 occasions this term across all competitions.During his time in Scotland, Stephenson was handed the captain’s armband for a 2-0 defeat to Motherwell in the Scottish Championship last month.The 22-year-old has now opened up on why he decided to leave Liverpool on loan, explaining that the experience he has gained while at Dundee United has been invaluable.“Obviously the ideal plan is always to just get straight into Liverpool’s first team, isn’t it?” Stephenson said.“And go from the Academy and straight into the first team and kind of go and do what Curtis Jones has done and those types of people where you can just go straight from there and straight into the first team.England's 2026 World Cup kitsThis article contains affiliate links, we will receive a commission on any sales we generate from it.
You can get free delivery on all orders with the code: ENGFREEDEL“But there’s also a route into the first team via going out on loan. I think you’ll never quite get what it’s like to play for Liverpool out on loan because of how massive the club is.“But I think you can get a lot more learnings from being out on loan and understanding the meaning of how it is to play for three points every week where there’s people’s jobs on the line and there’s three points on the line that means everything to everybody every weekend.“You only get that feeling of losing games, of winning games when you’re out on a loan.