Before Liverpool installed their transfer committee - nebulous in virtually everything aside from their blatant incompetence - Damien Comolli was the man in charge of transfers, in his role as Director of Football.
He left in April 2012, widely derided as a failure, with a number of his signings failing to make an impact. His departure was claimed as being down to personal reasons, although it soon became apparent it was because of his transfer dealings largely failing to make an impact.
Speaking today, Comolli has told Talksport that his firing was down to one signing failure in particular: the man who is now captain of both Liverpool and England, Jordan Henderson.
He is one of the main reasons I got sacked.
The day I got sacked, they told me I had made a big mistake on Jordan and he was a waste of money.
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.
Henderson cost the club £16 million from Henderson at the time. Comolli believes he and Kenny Dalglish were justified in spending that much money:
He fitted the profile we were looking for. We knew he was an outstanding person, we knew he had leadership skills, we knew he was totally dedicated to football, to his passion, and we knew he was someone who wanted to improve on a day to day basis. We knew his physical abilities - his fitness stats were absolutely unbelievable.
We were looking at statistics and we were going through a lot of midfield players in the Premier League and what amazed me and caught my eye was his ability to create quality chances.
For a player who was so young, playing not in a top side, with all due respect to Sunderland, he was producing and creating more quality chances, or least as much, as top quality players in the Premier League.
Henderson has since proven Comolli and Dalglish correct, but it easy to forget that he really struggled to make an impact before Brendan Rodgers brought the best out of him as an advanced midfielder in the 2013/14 season: he looked completely overawed by the whole experience up to Comolli's firing.
Comolli;s record is looking increasingly solid at Liverpool: he signed Luis Suarez (he was pretty good), Henderson, and Craig Bellamy, who was solid as well. That being said, he did also sign Instagrams's Jose Enrique - who badly faded after a good start - and he also sanctioned the signing of Andy Carroll while he was injured having fallen off a barstool. Presumably while watching the League of Ireland.
Henderson, meanwhile, captains England tonight, and has had his old Bebo page brought up in response/celebration.
It's pretty outstanding.
Jordan Henderson: the first England captain to have a Bebo page? pic.twitter.com/49TX3z4lPQ
— Amitai Winehouse (@awinehouse1) October 10, 2016
