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"I would be lying if I said I hadn't thought of leaving," admitted Skrtel when asked by Sport about whether he was happy to still be at Liverpool following the close of the transfer window. "I have not enjoyed the situation I find myself in at all, but I still have a contract with Liverpool and am proud that I can continue to pursue a career at one of the most famous clubs in the world."
With the arrival of two new centre backs shortly before the close of the window, Skrtel may find playing time even harder to come by in the coming months than he has over the past year, with the defender having fallen out of favour shortly after the arrival of manager Brendan Rodgers last summer. However, with the club taking a firm stance on wanting to keep hold of him, a move on the final day was never likely to happen.
"I would not call them negotiations but I did consider my alternatives," was his answer to whether he had sought to engineer a move away from the club. "I was linked to Napoli because of Rafa Benitez, and people thought that when he went I would follow him, but during our discussions Liverpool decided that I wouldn't be going anywhere. They were clear they wanted me to stay, and that's how it turned out."
He further added that when the window closed on Monday night, there were no potential deals close to completion and that he had never gone out of his way to pressure the club into selling him once Brendan Rodgers had made it clear they were determined not to. As to what might happen in January, for now Skrtel is only concerned about proving himself at Liverpool when he gets the chance.
"There are still a lot of matches before January," he said, "and I don't think so far ahead. I prefer to live in the now. Since I came to Liverpool in 2008 I have become accustomed to the fact that there will always be at least four cenre backs able to step in at any time. Everyone has a chance of playing and it is up to the individual how they deal with that."