Midfielder’s Heart-Breaking Admission Is a Damning Indictment of Arne Slot and Richard Hughes

Liverpool’s decision to cash in on 23-year-old midfielder Tyler Morton last summer has come back to haunt the club, with the Wallasey-born playmaker thriving in Ligue 1 and delivering a sobering assessment of his final months at Anfield. Speaking exclusively to BBC Sport, Morton revealed how being frozen out by head coach Arne Slot left him questioning his future and desperate to rediscover his passion for the game.

Morton, who had impressed during a 2023/24 loan spell at Hull City, returned to Merseyside anticipating a genuine opportunity to break into Slot’s first-team plans. Instead, he did not play a single minute of the Premier League title-winning campaign and was ultimately deemed surplus to requirements. The midfielder was relegated to the under-21 squad before completing a permanent move to France, where he has since become the metronome for Paulo Fonseca’s side.

“I was so hungry to play again and find my love for football again,” Morton told BBC Sport. “It’s really difficult when you don’t play. It’s so tough. You don’t get to show everyone how good you are. I’d never been more hungry to play football in my life.”

Since his switch, Morton has dictated tempo for his new club, operating primarily as a No6 and relishing the responsibility of orchestrating matches. “The manager has given me the reins to play my football and I’m loving it,” he said. “There’s no better position than number six, getting on the ball constantly, finding passes between the lines and using my brain to dictate games. Paulo Fonseca’s an incredible manager. He’s helped me so much. I’ve discovered things I didn’t even know I had as a footballer.”

Liverpool, meanwhile, are grappling with a shortage of homegrown talent and viable alternatives at the base of midfield. Morton’s seamless transition to top-flight French football has intensified scrutiny on sporting director Richard Hughes and Slot, whose reluctance to integrate the academy graduate now appears a costly miscalculation. The player’s emotional testimony underscores a broader concern: a promising English midfielder, developed in-house, was allowed to leave just as the squad’s depth was being tested.

With every poised performance across the Channel, Morton’s resurgence serves as a stark reminder of what might have been at Anfield.