Oussama Assaidi has taken a swipe at Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers for not giving him a "fair chance" to succeed at Anfield.
The Morroco international called time on an indifferent two-and-a-half-year spell on the Reds' books this month after joining Dubai-based Al-Ahli.
Assaidi had spent the first half of the season on loan at Stoke City, as well as the entire 2013-14 campaign.
The 26-year-old, a £2.4m signing from Dutch side Herenveen in 2012, has now admitted that he should never have joined the Merseyside club, but claims that he never got a chance to prove himself.
"To be honest I never got a fair chance at Liverpool. If you look at the games I played I don't think I did that bad," he told the Liverpool Echo. "Liverpool is a big club that tries to buy and buy and buy, but they don't always buy the right players. They look to big names but big names are not always the thing to look for because the small names are sometimes better.
"But they buy big names for big money and then they have to play them. That's how it works in Europe, you have to be a bit lucky. I came from a small club in Holland and I took a big step to go to Liverpool because they said I was a good player and would get a chance, but I didn't get the chance.
"I had wanted to join Ajax after Heerenveen, and perhaps after Ajax I could have gone to a bigger club like Liverpool, maybe I made the wrong decision to go to Liverpool early."
Assaidi netted four times in 12 Premier League starts for the Potters last season, and had yet to open his account for Liverpool from his 12 appearances in all competitions.
Shane Callaghan
