Former Reds director slams club owners.
Damien Comolli has hit out at Liverpool’s owners – the Fenway Sports Group – by revealing that they warned him signing Jordan Henderson would be a huge mistake, the Daily Mirror reports.
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Henderson joined the Reds in 2011 in a £20m deal from Sunderland, and after enduring a tough start to life at Anfield he is now being touted as a strong candidate to take over the captaincy from Steven Gerrard when he leaves at the end of the season.
Comolli was let go by the group in 2012 following a poor season under club legend Kenny Dalglish as Henderson, alongside fellow big money signings Andy Carroll and Stewart Downing, failed to pay back their transfer fees.
Henderson’s fortunes have drastically improved over the past 18-months, though, with him increasing in importance for both club and country, but Comolli has now revealed that the club’s owners were not afraid to express their reservations at bringing the midfielder on board.
“When I left Liverpool, the owners told me Henderson was a massive mistake,” he said.
“Now he’s turned out to be the next Liverpool captain and he’s a regular in every game.
“I don’t think I have to justify whether Carroll was a good decision or a bad decision. Look at it as a whole.
“When people talk to me nowadays about Liverpool, they say what a fantastic job you did in bringing players like Luis Suarez and Jordan Henderson to the club.
“The issue I have got is when a group of owners approach somebody like me and say we want to invest for the long term, we want you to sign young players, we want you to put together a squad which has a future for the next three to five years, we want you to work with the academy and we start to do all this and after a few months or a few years they say: ‘Sorry, it’s not working out’.
“You cannot say you have to focus on the future and at the same time say the young players are not ready to compete at the top level.”
While Henderson has undoubtedly proven a clever acquisition, the enormous amounts of money spent on Carroll and Downing is still unforgivable for many Liverpool fans.