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Joe Allen has revealed why his move “home” to Swansea City failed to materialise during the summer of 2016.

The Wales international, now plying his trade for Stoke, scored the winner against his boyhood club in midweek.

Allen was a product of the Swans academy, graduating to the first team and the Premier League before following Brendan Rodgers to Liverpool in the summer of 2012.

But, four years later, a move back to the Liberty Stadium had looked to be on the cards.

However, after a superb showing as Wales marched to the semi-finals of Euro 2016 saw his value rise and Stoke - then under the guidance of Mark Hughes - stole in to secure his services.

Swansea chairman had admitted last year that there had been a chance to bring Allen back and now the player himself has outlined what happened from his perspective and revealed that he had set his sights on a Liberty return six months earlier.

Allen was speaking to former Swansea and Wales team-mate Owain Tudur Jones on his acclaimed The Longman’s Football World podcast, episodes of which can be found here.

And the playmaker gave a detailed response when asked just how close he had come to rejoining his former club in 2016.

“We go back to my last season at Liverpool. We got to January, I started one league game in December and had done 10 league games in a row as an unused sub. I think it was fair to say the writing was on the wall,” he said.

“We got to January, I spoke to Klopp and probably about 10 days before the end of the transfer window said I wanted to leave, I probably went a bit early with it because it wasn’t as if I had options. I just wanted to let him know, could we sort this out.

“Then I remember, it was a time of a lot of soul searching and anyway I looked at it - potential moves, who might be interested and who definitely won’t be - and I remember writing an email or a letter to my agent explaining that ‘I keep coming back to Swansea, that’s all I really want. I want to go home and I want to play for them. If they want me can we try and make it happen?’

“Klopp had said ‘if we can get someone in then you can go’. That was pretty straightforward, but he did say ‘we don’t have anyone lined up, so if we don’t (get someone) you are staying’.

“So that was the situation, I think Huw (Jenkins) was interested in it. January is always an awkward time for any club, most of them have probably done their business in the summer.

“At that time if you look at how my career was going, the value probably would not have cost anywhere near as much as it did in the summer, only six months later. So that was the first one, and January didn’t really happen.

“But Swansea had said: ‘Let’s keep an eye on this and wait until the summer’.

“Then the second half of the season went much better, I played more, enjoyed it more. But it was almost that final hurrah as I always knew that come the summer I had a year left on my deal.

“Basically a year before Liverpool had said they wanted to extend my deal and get it sorted. A year later, I had not heard anything. I think it’s fair to say there was a u-turn on that decision.”

At the end of the season Allen had hoped to get his future sorted before the start of the Euros, but no bids were tabled for him prior to him heading to France with Wales.

And, as time went on, his value only rose in line with his fine performances.

“Then it was straight to the Euros, and I was keen to get it done. Why wait? I was hoping again for Swansea,” he continued.

“It’s ironic, but in January I had said it was Swansea and there were two other teams who, if they showed an interest, I would probably be interested in. They were Stoke and Southampton, I thought they were two stable Premier League clubs.

“Basically, the Euros started and there was nothing from Swansea and we played the two games and after the England game they tabled a bid.

“The problem was that by this stage I had had two good games at the Euros. Liverpool as a business were thinking ‘his value has increased now’ so probably waiting made it more difficult.

“You get it second hand but I don’t think Swansea were that far off, but Swansea probably thought ‘we’re not getting the best deal here, we’ll wait’.

“The Euros happened and the rest is history and that’s when Stoke tabled a bit which was higher, Liverpool accepted that bid and said until this is matched we are rejecting all other bids.

“It was not as close as people think. Some people think I could have gone to Swansea but chose not to but it was not a case of that it just did not quite happen.

“Swansea had the takeover happening at the time, there was a lot going on there in terms of who was staying and who was going and the rest of it.

“It was now or never for me, so that didn’t happen and I signed for Stoke.”

Episodes of Owain Tudur Jones' 'The Longman's Football World Podcast' can be found here .