Liverpool FC have parted ways with Damien Comolli, the club's Director of Football Strategy, just days ahead of the FA Cup Semi Final and weeks ahead of the opening of the summer transfer window.
In a brief statement Comolli said:
"I am happy to move on from the club and back to France for family reasons.
"I am grateful to have been given the opportunity to work at Liverpool. I wish the club all the best for the future."
However, the decision which was described as 'mutual consent' just like the departure of Rafa Benitez, is an expression of the disappointment from owners Fenway at the clubs transfer strategy since Comollli was appointed at the end of 2010.
Tom Werner, LFC's chairman added:
"The club needs to move forward and we now have a huge game on Saturday. It is important that everyone joins us in supporting the manager and gets behind Kenny and the team and focuses on a strong finish to the season."
Liverpool have invested just over £11M on new players in each of the three transfer windows since Fenway took charge of the club.
It is unclear at this time whether a replacement will be brought in, or whether the brief of the replacement will be day to day affairs at Anfield and Melwood, or will encompass player recruitment.
Players Signed during Damien Comolli's time at LFC
Luis Suarez £22.5M
Andy Carroll £35M
Jordan Henderson £16M
Charlie Adam £8M
Alexander Doni Free
Stewart Downing £18M
Jose Enrique £6M
Sebastian Coates £4.9M
Craig Bellamy Free
Liverpool spent £110.4M on 9 first team players and sold 12 first team players for £76.2M (a total transfer investment of £34.2 M in 3 transfer windows).
Liverpool and Man Utd – Similarities / Differences?
Feel I’m well placed to discuss the above, as I was at least on this Earth when the balance of power shifted from Merseyside to Manchester. there are parallels with the way Kenny has got started again at Anfield and the way Fergie rocked up at old trafford. Both entered the fray midway through the season (Fergie in November 1986, Kenny in January 2011) with both clubs languishing in the relegation spots. Fergie could only muster an 11th place finish that 1986 – 87 season, whereas Kenny got us to 6th (Despite Fergie having more time / more games to gain points). It is true that Fergie did better in his first full season, guiding Utd to a second placed Div 1 finish, albeit a lengthy 9 pts behind us. However, it took Fergie a full 3 and a half seasons to pick up his first trophy with Utd, the 1990 FA Cup. Kenny’s already won a trophy and may yet win another this season. There’s been a lot of talk about how much the club have spent and in some quarters two trophies would still be unsatisfactory despite the ~100 odd million we’ve spent. Well here’s a thought. It took Fergie 3 and half years to land that first trophy and by todays standards £301 m worth of investment. Fergies, league finishes don’t make great reading either over those first 4 seasons; 11th, 2nd, 11th, 13th. So in 3.5 years, £301 m spent, 1 trophy and 1 top half of the table finish.
You may ask how I arrived at those figures? Well I simply worked out how much each of Fergies signings cost as a % of the British record transfer fee of the day. I then worked out that percentage as an actual figure based on the current British transfer record fee (£50 m). I know this is subject to some error, but lets not forget that there was no European football back then as we were banned, hence Fergie’s early spending seems even more staggering. Even if we compare both managers by the actual gross figures of the day, between May 1985 and February 1991 (just under 6 years and 5 and a half seasons) Kenny spent £12 m, delivered 3 titles, 2 FA Cups and was runners up in the league on a further 2 occasions, and was runners up in the FA cup and Littlewoods Cup once. Between December 1986 and May 1990 (The time when Fergie arrived at Utd and won his first trophy, so 3 and a half full seasons) Fergie spent £12.86 m. So in roughly half the time, Fergie spent more than Kenny and achieved far less.
So the moral of this story folks is stop bashing our manager. He’s doing a good job. As for the league table not lying, well I’ll say this. With the benefit of hindsight, few could argue that between December 1986 and May 1990, few could now argue that Utd were improving. However, that improvement could not be gauged by league position. Sometimes the league table does lie.
£34.2 m on 9 players = 3.8 m per player. Not bad by 2012 standards. Value?
Dont think he done that bad considering. There are questions still on carrol,adam,henderson and downing. I think bellamy has exceeded,saurez,enrique,coates.Well if you buy an english international you expect it to pay off re downing.Good spin job here on his dismissal.
yes had to go. It was the right decision.
How about Parry and Clarke?
Just maybe it is for family reasons
While I’m not too sad to see Comolli go, as I was never convinced that he quite fit into the traditional scouting structure that had been established over recent years, I do think we won’t really know the value of his signings until the many juniors that have been signed start to become first team choices (or not). The focus at the moment is on the 9 first team signings and their failures, however the recruitment strategy has actually been angled much more towards getting the best of the next generation of players into the club.
At the end of the day, given the results a head had to roll, and was never going to be Kenny’s.
This news has come out of nowhere.
When Comolli was charged with finding young, good value, promising talent – the owners probably didn’t expect £80M to be spent on Carroll, Henderson, Adam and a 27 year old Downing.
Director of Football deciding transfers, or even just creating a shortlist as in Comolli’s case, has never worked in English football.
When the buck stops with the manager it is a totally transparent process.