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Things are looking up for ol' Oussama Assaidi. Having started eight of Stoke City's last nine matches, Assaidi is on a goal scoring streak(ish) having scored three in the last month alone. Liverpool's tissue thin squad depth has many looking at Assaidi's new found success and wondering whether or not he could replicate the same form if recalled from loan, but the winger seems unconvinced that an Anfield return is in his future.
"I don't know what is going to happen with me," Assaidi said of his loan situation. "Sometimes Brendan Rodgers texts me, but I don't know. I am very happy here, because Mark Hughes has made me better, giving me a lot of confidence and letting me do my job the way I want to.
"Everyone at the club seems to like me. We will see at the end of the year what happens. He (Rodgers) texts me sometimes if I score, saying 'well done', 'keep going' and 'I am hearing good things about you'. But I love to play here for Stoke because they have given me a chance."
It's rare that the words "love" and "Stoke" appear in the same sentence, but a chance is a chance is a chance and for a player who is at an age where he absolutely needs regular playing time if his career is ever going to truly get off the ground, it's very possible one could learn to love Stoke under such conditions.
It's nice to hear that Rodgers maintains regular contact with Assaidi and helps in celebrating his accomplishments; Assaidi may not have been invited home for Christmas like some other loanees, but at least Rodgers remembers he exists which is still… something. Still, if the player's form is read as an indication that he believes he can still fight for a spot at Liverpool, his words reveal a decidedly less confident vision of his ultimate fate in red.
