Coventry City's new arrival David Thompson has revealed he left Liverpool because he set himself a target of playing regular first team football.

He had decided when he was younger that he had to be a regular by the time he was 22, before his career started to slip away.

And he revealed that the arrival of Nick Barmby at Anfield was the final straw.

Faced with another season on the bench, he decided to make the move to increase the amount of first team action.

Gerard Houllier’s influx of midfielders meant it was increasingly unlikely that Thompson would get in the side.

The 22-year-old said:

“I could have stayed and fought for my place, but its whether it would have been a losing battle.

“It really is important for me to be playing regularly.”