Jordan Henderson cost Damien Comolli his job at Liverpool, according to the Frenchman at least.
The Liverpool captain was signed from Sunderland in 2011 for £16m, while Comolli was director of football and Kenny Dalglish was manager, but struggled initially.
Comolli also sanctioned the signing of Luis Suarez, and the significantly less successful signing of Andy Carroll, before leaving his role in April 2012, and has claimed that his dismissal was down to signing the former Black Cats midfielder.
Liverpool’s American owners were allegedly deeply unimpressed with Henderson, the current club captain, and England’s captain in Wayne Rooney’s absence against Slovenia on Tuesday night.
“The day I got sacked they [Liverpool’s owners] told me I had made a big mistake on Jordan and he was a waste of money,” Comolli told talkSPORT.
The Frenchman, who was director of football at Tottenham Hotspur between 2005 and 2008, also claimed he knew Henderson would go to become captain and an “outstanding player.”
“Everybody is entitled to their own opinion, but I think we paid the right price. He was a young English, British player and we know very often that British players are overvalued. But we were more than happy to pay the price because we thought he would become an outstanding player.
“I never said it publicly, but I was convinced he would be the future captain. People will say it is easy to say now, but I was convinced at the time that he would become the Liverpool captain. Now he is and he is also the England captain.”
In fairness to Liverpool’s American owners, they weren’t the only ones to have reservations over Henderson at that stage of his career. Former Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers attempted to convince the midfielder to join Fulham in 2o12, as part of a potential deal to take Clint Dempsey to Anfield.
Yet the 26-year-old has managed to tough it out and prove a lot of people wrong.
However, it could be argued Comolli’s dismissal had less to do with Henderson, and more to do with the signing of Carroll or Stewart Downing or Jose Enrique or Charlie Adam.
Catch up with the latest episode of Football Friday Live right here…
