Liverpool transfer panic made worse by embarrassing list of managers’ first signings
Liverpool are still waiting for their first new signing of the Arne Slot era ā and whoever it may be, theyāll be hoping it turns out a lot better than most of his predecessorsā first signings.
The past seven Reds bosses have almost universally signed the injury prone, the forgettably obscure and the downright disappointing; even Jurgen Klopp was no exception. Letās take a lookā¦
Gerard Houllier: Steve Staunton/Vegard Heggem/Jean Michel Ferri (1998)
Yes, weāre starting with a complicated one thanks to the strange nature of Houllierās arrival at Liverpool, which initially saw him sharing the managerās chair with Roy Evans.
A deal to re-sign 29-year-old Staunton as a free agent from Aston Villa seven years after selling him was already close to completion when Houllier arrived on July 1, but the defenderās deal didnāt get finalised and announced until July 2. Stan did alright on his return, to be fair, but his second spell is best remembered for him playing in net after that Merseyside derby fight between Everton striker Francis Jeffers and Liverpool goalkeeper Sander Westerveld.
If you want to discount Staunton on the grounds that contemporaneous reports spoke only of Evansā involvement in the deal, then you may be looking at exciting but hamstring-twangy Norwegian right-back Heggem, who arrived from Rosenborg, scored a couple of lovely goals, then played the last game of his career aged 25 thanks to his injury problems.
And if youāre absolutely determined to be a stickler about it and go for the first signing Houllier made as sole managerā¦that would be midfielder Jean Michel Ferri, signed as extra cover for Paul Ince despite being injured himself at the time, which isnāt traditionally how ācoverā works. Ferri played all of 47 minutes for Liverpool before going off to the French second tier.
READ NEXT:Ā Ā£30m bids, Gordon āmessā, Man Utd hijack ā how Fulham and Liverpool are trying to avoid embarrassment
Rafa Benitez: Josemi (2004)
Benitezās first six signings for Liverpool were all Spaniards, and a couple of them turned out to be inspired. Congratulations, Xabi Alonso and Luis Garcia, you officially turned out to be good.
The other four, thoughā¦pretty forgettable. Fernando Morientes was a big name, but not at Liverpool, while Mauricio Pellegrino has only rescued himself from the annals of distant memory (ish) thanks to his spell at Southampton, which we still think was done mostly because they still had a bit of personalised āMauricio Pā merchandise filling up the club shop storeroom that needed flogging. We have absolutely nothing to say about Antonio Nunez.
ButĀ the last of the forgotten four, Josemi, was also the first new face through the door for Benitez, and is the perfect figure to fall into the sofa crack of historical signings: played just enough (35 appearances) not to be laughed at a la Sean Dundee, but had no discernible impact. His face can nonetheless be found on commemorative photos in picture frames around the Liverpool-supporting world thanks to his having been an unused substitute for the 2005 Champions League final.
Roy Hodgson: Milan Jovanovic/Joe Cole (2010)
Weāre back in Houllier-esque territory here, in that Jovanovic had agreed his move to Liverpool prior to Benitezās dismissal but only arrived after Hodgson took the reins. It says it all that we remember him mostly for his baffling shout-out on Aussie soap NeighboursĀ as āone of the greatest footballers in the worldā in 2011 that went semi-viral.
So weāll also give a mention to Joe Cole, unwanted by Chelsea and available as a free agent, and for good reason as it turned out. Any hope that he might revive his career at Anfield was quickly dashed as he got sent off against Arsenal on his debut, then missed a Europa League penalty against Trabzonspor.
Cole lasted just a year at Liverpool and fell out of favour under Hodgsonās successor, Kenny Dalglish, before being sent out on loan to Lille. Cole did, however, return to make ten appearances for Brendan Rodgers before finally being deposited at Liverpoolās long-standing favourite dumping ground, West Ham United.
Ohā¦Liverpool also signed Danny Wilson on the same day as Cole. No, us neither.
MORE LIVERPOOL CONTENT ON F365
š Liverpool face ādisasterā as key Klopp trio ācould all leaveā as Reds name asking price for TAA
š Liverpool and Arsenal warned of Nico Williams transfer demands after impressive displays at Euro 2024
š Jarell Quansah sends Arne Slot message even as Liverpool continue centre-back hunt
Kenny Dalglish: Luis Suarez (2011)
The player who ruins an otherwise hilarious list of crap first signings by actually turning out to be good. Like, really really good.
Alright, so he was a bit bitey, and it was only really under Rodgers that he properly got going ā but once he did, he went close to single-handedly winning them the Premier League title ā not in the same way that he single-handedly kept Uruguay in the 2010 World Cup, but by scoring 31 goals in 33 Premier League appearances and forming a strike partnership that briefly made Daniel Sturridge actually look good too.
Flippant though we may be about his biteyness, we cannot excuse his racial comments towards Patrice Evra, however, nor the embarrassingly wrong-side-of-history response Dalglish and Liverpool gave. God.
Brendan Rodgers: Fabio Borini (2012)
Ah, this is more like it. The Italian had played for Rodgers at Swansea, which in the early days of Rodgersā reign seemed to be enough of a qualification for them to splash eight figures on a thoroughly middling player ā and this is back when hitting the Ā£10m mark still raised eyebrows rather than being half of what youād pay for a half-decent Championship prospect.
Itās not poor then-21-year-old Boriniās fault, but he turned out to beā¦a bit rubbish, even after he recovered from the back-to-back foot and shoulder injuries that sidelined him for most of his debut season.
Liverpool signed Philippe Coutinho while he was out, and that was basically that: just a year after he arrived, Borini was shipped out on loan to Sunderland, came back, played 18 games in the hangover season that followed their failed 2014 title challenge, then joined Sunderland permanently. Incredibly, his next move after that was AC Milan, which should be an inspiration to struggling mediocre footballers the world over.
Jurgen Klopp: Marko Grujic (2015)
Weāll give Liverpool this: at least this was one signed for the future, and Grujic genuinely was highly-rated at the time having emerged as a key player for Red Star as a teenager a couple of years earlier, and was linked with a bevy of top European clubs.
It never really happened for Grujic at Liverpool, though: in his five years at the club he made just 16 appearances, only half of which were in the league, and spent most of his time out on loan, at Cardiff City and Hertha Berlin. Heās currently at Porto, where his status is quite firmly set to āback-up for the first teamā.
Kloppās next two signings after Grujic, out of interest? QPR loanee Steven Caulker and youth goalkeeper Kamil Grabara. That was followed the next summer by one of the most wildly mixed bags of signings youāre ever likely to see: Sadio Mane, Loris Karius, Joel Matip, Ragnar Klavan, Alex Manninger(!), Giorginio Wijnaldum, Mo Salah, Dominic Solanke, Andy Robertson, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain.
Apparently, sometimes just throwing everything at the wall and seeing what sticks actuallyĀ does work.
