Former Liverpool director of football Damien Comolli has claimed that the club’s owners never rated Jordan Henderson when he signed from Sunderland.
Comolli officialy left Anfield by mutual consent in 2012, although rumours suggested that he was shown the door for failing to make satisfactory signings in that summer.
The Frenchman now claims that he was sacked and feels it was because he signed Jordan Henderson from Sunderland for a fee of £20m; a signing which was not met with happiness by the club’s owners, who are claimed to not have rated the midfielder.
“When we signed Jordan Henderson, he got so much criticism, I got so much criticism,” he said at the Web Summit in Dublin.
“I was never told why I was sacked but I was led to believe it was because we signed Jordan Henderson, and the owners were convinced he was not good enough.”
The 24-year-old midfielder has since gone on to become an important part of the club and Comolli insists that he always saw the midfielder’s potential.
“Looking at Jordan Henderson, we wanted legs, we wanted physicality, we wanted pace and creativity in the final third,” he added. “I was able to benchmark Jordan against the top midfield players in the Premier League, taking his age into consideration, taking the transfer fee into consideration, and in my position, you need to look at age, money and the player’s ability.
“Looking at all this, what he was doing for his age, and all due respect to Sunderland, he was definitely undervalued by the market. And I’ve been told we overvalued him. Even directors at Sunderland later said ‘You didn’t know what you were doing’.
“Jordan stood out at the time, when he was 20, because of the number of chances he created in the final third. He was very good at it. When you look at chances created in the final third in open play, you are the best player finishing in the top 5-10 [in the Premier League] every year.
“So when I saw Jordan in that area, I thought he’s definitely got something. Because when I was looking at it five years back, [Thierry] Henry, [Frank] Lampard and [Cesc] Fabregas were there, so when he was there, I thought definitely he’s got something. It can’t be a coincidence, and now look at him.”