STEVE Hothersall recently interviewed Damien Comolli about his time at Liverpool for City Talk 105.9 and it got me thinking about Anfield’s former director of football strategy and later director of football.
I thought about him while watching Luis Suarez for Barcelona. I thought about him when Memphis Depay decided to go to Manchester United after Liverpool’s earlier interest in the player. And I thought about him when Jerome Sinclair made his Premier League debut on Sunday at Stamford Bridge aged 18, with 19-year-old Jordan Ibe joining him on the pitch soon after.
All the time I wondered whether it was time to have a look at Comolli’s time at Liverpool again.
The Frenchman, who has also worked with Monaco, St Etienne, Arsenal and Spurs, was sacked by FSG just 18 months after being appointed in November 2010.
Don’t worry. I’m not going to try to convince you that Andy Carroll was worth £35million, or that Charlie Adam was ever the right fit for the club. But here are the signings most attribute to his hand during his time at the club:
- Andy Carroll: £35m
- Luis Suárez: £22.7m
- Jordan Henderson £20m
- Charlie Adam £8.5m
- Stewart Downing £20m
- Doni: Free
- José Enrique: £7m
- Sebastián Coates: £7m
- Craig Bellamy: Free
- Jordan Ibe: £500k
- Danny Ward: £100k
- Sheyi Ojo: Undisclosed
- Jerome Sinclair: Free
Like at Spurs, his record reads a superstar, a couple of notable successes, some fantastic youth players and plenty who leave you scratching your head. But forget the players for a moment, instead it’s the strategy and implementation during Comolli’s reign that I believe is worth some fresh consideration.
I will touch on the Suarez transfer though. It seems Comolli is part of the growing number of people who don’t get any credit for what Luis Suarez did at Liverpool.
Earlier in the year, in an attack on Comolli, Ian Doyle of the Liverpool Echo called the Suarez transfer ‘something of a no-brainer’ which seems ridiculously harsh considering every other club in Europe knew about him and didn’t put a bid in. For example, here is Harry Redknapp:
“We looked at Suarez. He was a player who we probably should have taken, looking back on it. We just weren’t sure.”
And that was for bloody Tottenham! We’re not talking Real Madrid here. Comolli was part of the team that identified the player as someone who improved us and, crucially, he then got the job done.
This is what I want to focus on: Comolli as a man who got shit done. In January 2011, less than three months after joining Liverpool, he managed to negotiate a fee of £50million for a striker who didn’t want to play for Liverpool and bring in two who did. This was during the January transfer window — a time when Liverpool haven’t managed to sign anyone for the last two seasons because apparently it’s impossible.
So back then, against all the odds, we managed to lose one of the most highly thought of strikers in Europe and, for a few extra quid, come out better off. And he still found time to sell Ryan Babel, too.
There has been plenty written and said about the players brought in during the summer of 2011, but from a director of football point of view it must be said that the club seemed to have a clear strategy and managed to secure most of their first-choice targets.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qWmmHBu_-Yw
A focus on midfielders who created chances might not have been the best strategy in the world; I would argue that any system that values Charlie Adam above Xabi Alonso is ultimately flawed, while I also doubt how many of Stewart Downing’s floated balls into the box a striker probably wants.
But it was a clearer strategy than the one which sent us from Sanchez to Remy to Balotelli in the summer. And I’d have fancied Comolli over anyone at the club now to at least manage to a chat with Alexis Sanchez.
Away from the headline-grabbing deals, there was also a recruitment strategy of poaching the best teenage talent in the country for nominal fees. Comolli helped secure Sinclair, Ibe and Sheyi Ojo in a short space of time. Since he left we either haven’t been as successful at this, or we simply haven’t bothered with it.
Also under the radar, and less referenced in print and online, are the players Comolli helped shift on during the summer of 2011. He got a healthy £12m for Raul Meireles, a generous £4m for David N’gog, a ‘tops off’ £1.5m for Paul Konchesky and a champagne popping £1m for Christian Poulsen. SERIOUSLY, SOMEONE GAVE US MONEY FOR CHRISTIAN POULSEN.
He also got notable amounts for a few young players who were never going to make the grade, including Gerardo Bruna (once hailed as the ‘new Lionel Messi’), who was recently seen playing for Whitehawk in the sixth tier of English football before moving to Accrington Stanley. Whitehawk? Yeah, me neither. They sound like a metal band from Wolverhampton.
On top of all that, Comolli managed to get the eye-watering £120,000-a-week salary of Milan Jovanovic off the wage bill.
He did much of this, by all accounts, by not being terribly nice to footballers Liverpool didn’t want anymore. A much underrated Comolli quality — and another which might be lacking from the club at the moment.
The Fabio Borini situation is a good example of this. Last summer the manager clearly wanted him gone, but in the back of his mind he is thinking, ‘If he doesn’t go, I might need him’. He also might be thinking, ‘I might end up at another club in a few years’ time and he might be playing there’. This is a tough one for managers all over the country. How much can you truly ostracise a footballer?
What was needed then was Damien Comolli flushing Borini’s head down the toilet and shoving a National Express bus ticket in his back pocket.
As Liverpool fans, it was our first real experience of a director of football, and it was always going to be an uneasy one, especially with someone with a limited experience of playing and coaching. “Who is this fella to tell Kenny Dalglish who he should and shouldn’t be buying?”
But Kenny spoke highly of Comolli both during and after their work together. In late April 2012, when Comolli had been sacked but Dalglish was just about hanging on, Kenny said:”The director of football role in this country is much maligned. I think people just have something against the job title or the principles.
“For me, the role Damien played was a fantastic help. I think it would be for any manager, as long as everyone knows the lines that they cannot cross, that’s fine.”
Dalglish spoke of the need to replace Comolli, but the club never did, instead moving towards a committee of men, some of whom make Comolli’s footballing career look like Johan Cruyff’s.
Is it time to replace him now? Would we as a fan base be more welcome to it?
The manager famously refused to work under one, telling the media on his appointment as Liverpool boss in June 2012: “One of the items I brought up when I was speaking to the club was that I wouldn’t directly work with a director of football.
“I feel that if you are going to do that as a club you have to do that first. That was my recommendation. If you want to have a sporting director, get him in and then you can pick your manager from there but if you do I won’t be the manager.”
Rodgers’ hand could be weakened after a disappointing season. Or, if it makes him feel any better, maybe we can call it something else.
I’m not advocating the return of Comolli. He’s still the fella who spent £20m on Stewart Downing. I just want someone who is out there getting deals done. Moving players on. Committed and able to ensure the best young talent in the country is moving to our academy. Making sure that, when top talent is looking to move, Liverpool are at least part of the conversation.
I think we’d all welcome that individual at the club. Whoever they may be.
[rpfc_recent_posts_from_category meta=”true”]
Pics: David Rawcliffe-Propaganda-Photo
Nothing like a pair of good old rose coloured spectacles is there eh.
The guy who still dines out on ‘discovering Gareth Bale’ (when not only ourselves but Ure and Arsenal had already long since been linked with him) never ceases to amaze me.
He tried low-balling Ajax for the entire month of January to showcase his ‘negotiating skills’.
Had we just signed him for the 23 mil they wanted and Torres got time to train with him, who knows the outcome.
And to suggest he got us the 50 mil for Torres, NESV would never have been able to set foot in Anfield if they had sold for anything less, especially as City had tabled a much larger bid the summer before & came knocking again prior to signing Dzeko that same window.
In stark contrast to the Suarez epic, Commolli then agreed to pay 35 mil to Newcastle in a day’s trading and then tried to convince us it wasn’t a panic buy and Carroll was a summer target brought forward.
The following summer he then made it clear all the senior players had bought in on the ill-fated draft of new recruits as if to say it wasn’t just me who thinks they’re okay.
Read what Arnesen, Jol, Redknapp, Wenger and the St Ettiene president have to say about him and then put your bins back in their nostalgia tinted case.
Torres transfer was on the cards since the summer apparently, it wasn’t a spur of the moment decision. We were pretty much passed the point of no return come xmas.
I gotta agree that we need someone with influence, contacts and standing that can get deals done. That will go that extra mile to either get a player in or get a player out with a few extra mil.
It can’t be down to the manager alone (although I do believe the manager has to sell his vision to prospective signings) as he has enough on his plate as it is. Whoever it is must take responsibility and work closely with the manager. There has to be accountability!
Your closing paragraph is slightly wrong: all but one ‘…would welcome that individual to the club.’ That ONE is Brendan Rodgers, and almost a quarter of a billion pounds pissed against the wall later, someone should start ignoring a man who says ‘…if you do I won’t be manager.’ Personally I’d take him at his word, but then he promised Swansea he wouldn’t poach any of their players then tried to lure a handful of them.
Someone else would have their nose seriously out of the joint, the person whose job description covers 70% of what Comolli did, Dave Fallows, Head of Recruitment.
His record’s horrendous, and we started scouting Luis Suarez even during Rafa’s time, think Rafa asked Kenny to scout him, too. I wouldn’t give Comolli that much at all, it’s like when Hodgson started trying to take credit for Suarez’s signing when it was apparent that he was a pretty good player
And Spurs fans hate him, he was responsible for the David Bentleys of the world, only when they basically stopped listening to him did they start signing the Modrics of the world
And anyone who sanctioned Andy Carroll for 35 million all upfront must not be very good at their jobs
Think you’ll find Comolli signed Modric and Bale!! So totally wrong on that Bentleys Jibe!!!!
Bale was a completely lucky case, people forget that he was signed as a left back and he famously went through dozens of games before Spurs finally won one he started in
And Comolli nearly got rid of him because he thought he was shite. How times change
Modric was signed in his last year when Tottenham lost faith in him and they basically plotted their own transfers that year before getting rid of him. It had nothing to do with him, before that, he signed looooads of players and the only one who was a success at the time was Berbatov, in between that was at least a dozen flops
The guy’s a snake oil salesman
Any good he did was more than wiped out by Carroll and Downing.
Well argued piece.
Apart from getting actual money for Poulson, Konchesky, etc, we made a profit on the players we bought under Camoli but have since sold……
Paid Received Net
Carroll 35 16 (19)
Suarez 22 65 43
Adam 10 4 (6)
Downing 20 5 (15)
_______ _________ _____________
87 90 3
Compare to what we’d get if we sold the players signed by the committee/Rodgers. Would we even get quarter of our money back?
Also Ibe and Henderson are now important players in or around the first team and Enrique was good for a year and is still a half-decent squad player, ie value for £7m.
Camoli may not have been perfect but he was far better than the current set-up
I agree that we need a DoF or actual football men to be responsible for transfers but we must do much better than the likes of Comolli, to me his record’s still shitehouse
I’m hoping the Monchi rumours are true
If Ian Ayre is on the transfer committee then it spells out everything that’s wrong with our transfer strategy atm
Genuinely didn’t think you could put a positive spin on the Comolli era, but you pulled it off. Kudos.
I guess it proves, rightly or wrongly, that the strength of his position is dictated by the big money high profile deals. A £35m loss and 2 years of mostly piss poor performances is admittedly hard to look past. His negotiation skills were derided by plenty because of those deals, but by the time all of the players he signed have ended their Liverpool careers, there’s a chance he might break even.
The point about offloading players is interesting, especially in light of Andy Carroll’s comments earlier this season about his treatment at the hands of Rodgers. Maybe it is better for the manager to have some of those difficult decisions taken out of his hands? As evidenced above, Kenny didn’t seem to mind.
I also think Carroll is easily a £35m player if he could stay fit. His record for West Ham and Newcastle is something like a goal or assist every other game and he was a beast for us in the last few months under Kenny.
Willian cost about the same as we paid for Carroll and he (Willian) has 4 goals and 4 assists in 42 games for Chelsea this season. And apparently he’s been a ‘success’.
If Carroll could stay fit he’s easily a 20+ goals or assists a season player. Add to that he was 21 when we signed him (and English) and I can see why Camoli paid £35m
Monchi from Sevilla is the guy we need.
So the man who is taking Iago Aspas off our hands is the man to sort out our transfers eh? Interesting view.
To be quite fair, he’s scored 12 goals for them while all our strikers combined can only manage 13
His record at Sevilla’s outstanding, the ability to spot a bargain or develop a young player is as good as any around the Spanish league. He would fit quite nicely
If you think in the ability to work with a small budget to bring on a load of young Spanish talent is going to be what makes the difference, then maybe he is the man. But I think we have tried that approach a couple of times already?
Surely if we were to be after a DoF, we would be looking for a CV that addressed Liverpool’s perceived weakness at the higher end of the market?
Well we are working on that youth/hidden bargain angle anyway (although we’re failing miserably at it), so might as well stick with it
I don’t think we’ll be able to compete with the higher end signings for quite a while, not because we can’t close the deals but purely because the owners aren’t keen on those deals. Plus without sustained CL football it would be extremely hard to convince the top players to come however savvy or well connected we might be
Excellent read.
There has to be someone out there who can tie up the deals that Ian Ayre consistently cannot manage to do.
Ayre is a clown and all these players we are supposedly after must see it that way too.
I think that’s a very valid point.
Regards Bale, a family friend’s son was in that same Academy with Bale and said he was so good that everyone knew he would be gone. They regularly had scouts from the major clubs turning up to watch him, Arsenal wanted to include him in the deal for Walcott and United were desperate to sign him too ( and he wanted to go as he was an Arsenal fan).
So let’s not act as if Commolli was walking the dog past an under 9’s game in the park and spotted something that nobody else could see!
Fair enough but is the more pressing matter actually closing the deal, he signed the player bigger clubs wanted. I’m not arguing for Camoli to return just offering another angle to the benefit of having someone who can actually seal the deal.
I think that’s quite rare for a, soon to be, Premiership player to be well known throughout the scouting world. What normally happens is no one has ever heard of them and suddenly a scout spots them and they sign for a Premiership club out of the blue. So yeah, let’s not give Comolli any credit.
I think people are missing the point here. I don’t think John is actually advocating for the return of Comolli, more the bringing in of a figure that has contacts around Europe and beyond and has influence and reputation in the football world. Someone who can spot a player and close the deal. Or on the other hand get players out the door who are unwanted to free up funds. Someone who can get shit done!!
Absolutely agree Michael – I don’t even think the ability to “spot a player” is a requirement – just purely the ability to do a deal. We need someone who can get players to sign for LFC even when they are being courted by MUFC, AFC, MCFC, CFC…..and get rid of the deadwood too.
The whole argument about Rodgers talent or lack of it, responsibility for the debacles or valiant endeavours while hamstrung by an inept Transfer Committee or stingy owners, overlook the one great imponderable; Rodgers ego. He would no more countenance interference than the other great footballing ego, Brian Clough. Therefore it’s all his doing or undoing. And extending his tenure just means more of the same.
Ah but that’s not true is it Kevin? Brian Clough put a lot of faith in Peter Taylor.
But Taylor didn’t overrule Clough – quite the contrary. Who could overrule a man who reportedly said “Muhammad Ali has met me.”