Not long after Kevin Schade joined Brentford in January, the young German attacker gave a brutally honest answer to the club’s in-house media about why he would have turned down the opportunity to sign for Liverpool.
A move to Anfield, the 21-year-old said, “would not be good for me” because his path to regular game time would have been obstructed. Nevermind the higher chance of silverware; the main thing was finding a club where he will be able to get on the pitch frequently.
Liverpool had been monitoring the attacker closely for some time and there was talk of a potential bid before Brentford agreed a £22m deal with Bundesliga side Freiburg.
Schade has done well sporadically for the Bees since then and head coach Thomas Frank insists that he is convinced he will go on to be a massive success following his bedding in period.
But a first goal continues to elude him. For it to come at Anfield against a Liverpool team making a late-season surge would, Frank says, “be a nice story.”
“Kevin is a young player who needs a lot of development but he’s shown good signs of what he’s capable of. I’m convinced he will be a very good player for us in the future. I understand why he would have been linked with them. He’d have fit their style. We’re privileged he signed for us.
“There’s no doubt he needs playing minutes before he can go to that next level potentially. But of course it’s nice that we get players who are linked with other clubs because they can also see the potential for a player.”
There are no concerns at Brentford about Schade’s failure to get off the mark - yet. Arriving to a new country mid-season is never easy, especially for a younger player looking for opportunities in a team surpassing all expectations and still in with a slim shout of a Europa League spot.
Frank added: “Every time a player comes to a new club, country or culture it takes time to settle in. In that aspect he has settled in fairly quickly here. There was another German player in Vitaly Janelt and the group was excellent to integrate him quick. He got an apartment relatively quick, his girlfriend moved up. In those aspects we’ve been successful and it was a smooth transition to here.
“In Kevin’s case he’s not 25 and had five full seasons in the Bundesliga and scored 15 or 20 goals in each season. He’s a young player who hasn’t played that many games in the Bundesliga. Taat needs to be taken into consideration.
“And for me it makes it clear that it will take a bit of time before we see the fully up and running Kevin. That’s natural. He’s added a layer already and I’m happy with his development so far but there is so much more to come. Starting with his first goal.”
