Updated at 16.47
DAMIEN COMOLLI HAS suggested that the signing of Jordan Henderson was ultimately to blame for his sacking by Liverpool as Director of Football.
Speaking at the 2014 Web Summit in Dublin today, Comolli — who has overseen a number of high-profile purchases working with Arsenal, Liverpool and Tottenham (among others), from the good (Luis Suarez) to the bad (Andy Carroll) — highlighted Henderson in particular as a fascinating case.
“When we signed Jordan Henderson, he got so much criticism, I got so much criticism,” Comolli said.
“I was never told why I was sacked but I was led to believe it was because we signed Jordan Henderson, and the owners were convinced he was not good enough.”
Comolli revealed that Henderson’s creativity, in particular, was what drew him to the player as a youngster at Sunderland.
“Looking at Jordan Henderson, we wanted legs, we wanted physicality, we wanted pace and creativity in the final third. I was able to benchmark Jordan against the top midfield players in the Premier League, taking his age into consideration, taking the transfer fee into consideration, and in my position, you need to look at age, money and the player’s ability.
“Looking at all this, what he was doing for his age, and all due respect to Sunderland, he was definitely undervalued by the market. And I’ve been told we overvalued him. Even directors at Sunderland later said ‘you didn’t know what you were doing’.
“Jordan stood out at the time, when he was 20, because of the number of chances he created in the final third. He was very good at it. When you look at chances created in the final third in open play, you are the best player finishing in the top 5-10 [in the Premier League] every year.
“So when I saw Jordan in that area, I thought he’s definitely got something. Because when I was looking at it five years back, Henry, Lampard and Fabregas were there, so when he was there, I thought definitely he’s got something. It can’t be a coincidence, and now look at him.”
Comolli also defended his overseeing of Liverpool’s acquisition of Andy Carroll for £35million, pointing out that they earned a large proportion of his transfer fee back, while the deal also coincided with the purchase of Luis Suarez, who turned out to be a great success at the club.
“We sold two players, we bought two players. We were fitter, younger, and we still had value. Because I told the owners we still have value, if it goes wrong with Andy Carroll, we’ve overpaid by 15million. They got 20million back and they got incredible value on Suarez, not only by the money from Barcelona but him taking them on his own to the Champions League.”
Additional reporting by Steven O’Rourke
Spends £55mil on Henderson and Carroll and then is wondering why he was sacked?
Henderson is proving to be worth every penny!
Or perhaps everything before it and overpaying for him was the last straw
Poor oul Jordo gets some amount of stick whether it’s from that pest Ferguson (for absolutely no reason) complaining about how he runs to Comoli announcing to the world that he was sacked for signing him!
ah well….dont like ferguson, but he was right, henderson does have a clumbsy running technique
And you have a ‘clumbsy’ spelling technique..
So does Fergus McFadden (seriously, check him out next time he’s sprinting) and he’s one of the fastest in the Leinster squad.
I think Camolli’s point is that he was sacked because at the time everyone thought Henderson was not good enough. Now Henderson has proved himself a top player, Camolli is having a whinge. He may have a point there. It’s Andy Carroll that was the disastrous signing, Liverpool took a £20m bath on that lad
On that note, take a look at Chris Latham. One of the best full backs of all time.
He looked uncoordinated, but was anything but!
Good enough reason, what’s his problem
Sacked because he wouldn’t wear the Suarez tee shirts I heard
Not to mention the dross he signed at white Hart lane.
Yeah, like Gareth Bale…
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Easy to talk after the dust has settled but both Carroll and henderson were considered flops when he got the bullet. That’s a lot of money for players not producing at the time of your p45. The fact West Ham were stupid enough to pay for that crock carrol is beside the point. Didn’t happen on your watch. Will henderson turn into a lampard Gerrard Scholes? Only time will tell but if I was a gambling man I would not put my last fiver on it. The fact he was at spurs when there were more misses than hits probably didn’t help. How much did caybe cost? English players so overpriced if they don’t hit the ground running your looking at the dole. Same problem at villa just we don’t have 55 million to waste on 2 players. Plenty of fellas in the 5 to 8 million bracket have crippled us. That’s without mentioning bent! Talking nonsense if you ask this man’s humble opinion…. which no one did obviously
henderson is just a journeyman 5million pound player. £20 million was way too much definatly
FFS Thomas you are so deluded. Jordan is pure class
I said it at the time
He has great technic savage fitness and heart also. That is why he is now club vice captain.
To say he is a journey man. You are wrong he will leave for a too Champions league team like Real or barca or maybe bayern but he will not go latterly Give him time Top player in the making
Are you being serious Peter? Do you really think Henderson ranks alongside the likes of Kroos, Modric, Iniesta or Schweinsteiger? He is a somewhat talented player but is far from Madrid/Barca/Munich standard.
Peter where’s your last vice captain playing now …
Sold Torres signed Suarez – 30€ million profit. 35€ Carroll 20€ Henderson !suarez sold 70€ =45€ plus the 15€ the got for Carroll I think he done a pretty good job after all
You forgot to factor Torres was £20m stg.
Ah we could go on all day but we got years of greatness out of Torres and sold him on for more money same with Suarez !
And bought overpriced joe allen=flop; lalanna=flop ;lambert=flop; balatelli =flop; lovren=flop; moreno=flop; emer can=flop; asbas=flop; and sold good players, spearing,martin kelly, charlie adam, Reina.
Thomas I feel now would be a good time to put the keyboard away cos uv clearly resorted to typing shite at this stage.
What can emer do?
@thomas
Do you want sum aloe vera?
Cos you just got burnt
How so? liverpool are languishing in 7th position in the league now( and lucky to be that high). a standard they previously were at before they spent millions on those flops.
Yeah, Spearing was great…
Was’nt bad…he was only 19 or 20
23
Ya haven’t a clue
Liverpool that high in the league not playin well still ahead of Man Utd who spent double Liverpool have. Liverpool not had their main striker or john Flanagan available and when they comeback it will be massively different started to look good against Real Madrid the other night including cam and markovic . Let’s wait and see after Christmas where Liverpool are and your team United are
And you have Doyle ???? Please no more I’m falling off the chair here with laughter
Holy mother of jesus you must be joking, you’re no longer allowed have an opinion.
So you replaced Madrid with Barcelona! Lucky I spotted it eh hahaha
He was 16million.