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Comolli sacked from the bindippers?

Don't know why, but never warmed to the guy. Didn't think he was a bad bloke, per se; he seemed fine. Just...he seemed to epitomise our perennial underachievement for me, after all the hype that went into his signing. One good World Cup does not a good player make, I think.

He has a fantastic engine, but not much (if any) ability. Looked like a rabbit in the headlights whenever he was about to bare down on goal. It would make me laugh whenever he went on those long runs, then he bricks himself when he gets to the final third as he looks like he has no clue what to do next!
 
Here's a list of Comolli's signings for us.

Alnwick ?ú1m - He's crap
Assou-Ekotto ?ú3m - Our left back of the past 4 years, now one of the best in the League
Bale ?ú7m - Massive success. Current value atleast 5x what we paid
Bent ?ú16m - Didn't have the best time here, scored goals but just didn't fit us well, sold for the same
Bentley ?ú15m - Disaster
Berbatov ?ú11m - Massive success, sold for ?ú31m
Chimbonda ?ú5m - Did ok
Corluka ?ú8m - Solid player
Ghaly ?ú2m - Personally I liked him, decent player but our idiotic fans decided to boo him and as we know he didn't react too well, sold for ?ú1m
Gilberto ?ú2m - Poor, only played a few games but did score against the Spammers
Giovani ?ú5m - Hasn't lived upto the hype
Gomes ?ú7m - Mixed. Some great and some bad moments
Gunter ?ú2m - Took a shot on him and he wasn't good enough, sold for the same
Hutton ?ú9m - Initially promising but turned out to be a poor signing, sold for ?ú4m
Kaboul 8m - Didn't work out initially but now he's a rock and our only reliable CB we have left
Malbranque ?ú3m - Decent player for us at the time, sold for roughly the same
Mido ?ú5m - Was very good the season before but didn't take well to being 4th choice, got fat and was sold for about the same
Modric ?ú16m - Like Berbatov, a massive success, current market value is double what we paid
Murphy ?ú2m - Never really got a look in, sold for around the same I think
Pav ?ú14m - Overpriced, scored some goals but not a massive success, sold for ?ú8m
Prince-Boateng ?ú5m - Didn't work out but as you can see now at Milan he always had the talent, think he was sold for ?ú4m
Rasiak ?ú2m - Ok he was terrible
Rocha ?ú3m - He was crap
Taarabt ?ú3m - Always had talent but attitude let him down, sold for ?ú1m
Woodgate ?ú7m - Always remembered for his winner against Chelsea, a great CB but ruined by injuries. Released
Zokora ?ú8m - Not the greatest but not the worst either, sold for around the same

So a mixed boat, but personally I think his good signings outweighed the bad and we've benefited from that over the past couple of years. Unfortunately for him some of his signings took their time to realise their ability which cost him, maybe if Harry had come in earlier then he wouldn't have been fired(although I know Harry wouldn't have worked under a dof)
 
Here's a list of Comolli's signings for us.

Alnwick ?ú1m - He's crap
Assou-Ekotto ?ú3m - Our left back of the past 4 years, now one of the best in the League
Bale ?ú7m - Massive success. Current value atleast 5x what we paid
Bent ?ú16m - Didn't have the best time here, scored goals but just didn't fit us well, sold for the same
Bentley ?ú15m - Disaster
Berbatov ?ú11m - Massive success, sold for ?ú31m
Chimbonda ?ú5m - Did ok
Corluka ?ú8m - Solid player
Ghaly ?ú2m - Personally I liked him, decent player but our idiotic fans decided to boo him and as we know he didn't react too well, sold for ?ú1m
Gilberto ?ú2m - Poor, only played a few games but did score against the Spammers
Giovani ?ú5m - Hasn't lived upto the hype
Gomes ?ú7m - Mixed. Some great and some bad moments
Gunter ?ú2m - Took a shot on him and he wasn't good enough, sold for the same
Hutton ?ú9m - Initially promising but turned out to be a poor signing, sold for ?ú4m
Kaboul 8m - Didn't work out initially but now he's a rock and our only reliable CB we have left
Malbranque ?ú3m - Decent player for us at the time, sold for roughly the same
Mido ?ú5m - Was very good the season before but didn't take well to being 4th choice, got fat and was sold for about the same
Modric ?ú16m - Like Berbatov, a massive success, current market value is double what we paid
Murphy ?ú2m - Never really got a look in, sold for around the same I think
Pav ?ú14m - Overpriced, scored some goals but not a massive success, sold for ?ú8m
Prince-Boateng ?ú5m - Didn't work out but as you can see now at Milan he always had the talent, think he was sold for ?ú4m
Rasiak ?ú2m - Ok he was terrible
Rocha ?ú3m - He was crap
Taarabt ?ú3m - Always had talent but attitude let him down, sold for ?ú1m
Woodgate ?ú7m - Always remembered for his winner against Chelsea, a great CB but ruined by injuries. Released
Zokora ?ú8m - Not the greatest but not the worst either, sold for around the same

So a mixed boat, but personally I think his good signings outweighed the bad and we've benefited from that over the past couple of years. Unfortunately for him some of his signings took their time to realise their ability which cost him, maybe if Harry had come in earlier then he wouldn't have been fired(although I know Harry wouldn't have worked under a dof)

Looking at that list, I certainly think he got more wrong than right. I'll give him credit for the likes of Corluka, Mido, Malbranque, Kaboul, Modric and Berbatov. To be honest though, people say sometimes that he unearthed the likes of Modric and Berbs, but as others have pointed out, other clubs were looking at them so it's not like he found them from nowhere like Wenger has done plenty of times in the past, but I give him credit for taking a punt of them all the same.

The bad ones:
Zokora
Rocha
Taarabt
Chimbonda
Bentley
Boateng
Hutton
Lee Young Pyo

The truly terrible ones:
Alnwick
Ghaly
Rasiak

Ironic that we signed Bent when we didn't need him and yet we haven't gone out and bought a striker in the last 3 windows when it's obvious to everyone except Levy/Redknapp/whoever you want to blame that we clearly are crying out for one!
 
Damien Comolli is never knowingly undersold ÔÇô just ask Ars?¿ne Wenger

The Frenchman's departure from Liverpool will not surprise those, like the Arsenal manager, not charmed by his chutzpah


Damien-Comolli-Liverpool-008.jpg
During Damien Comolli's three years at Tottenham Hotspur the club signed Gareth Bale and Luka Modric but Liverpool's recent signings were not so successful. Photograph: Nigel French/Empics Sport



To the staff who saw it at Tottenham Hotspur the CV that Damien Comolli attached to his job application form in 2005 was the subject of considerable mirth ÔÇô and incredulity. The Frenchman swept into White Hart Lane as replacement for the outgoing sporting director, Frank Arnesen, on the back of a body of work that had supposedly helped to make Ars?¿ne Wenger the success story he became at Arsenal.


If Wenger would be indebted to players such as Thierry Henry and Robert Pires, then the manager's affection for Comolli, the club's European talent scout from 1996-2003, for ushering the legendary France internationals Wenger's way, together with a glut of other stars, would surely know no bounds.


"I let you write what you want about Comolli," Wenger said in November 2010, with scarcely concealed disgust. "He was a scout here and not a director of football. He worked under Steve Rowley [the chief scout]. That is it. Only one person decides who comes in here and that is me. Nobody else."


Comolli is never knowingly undersold, although his detractors at Tottenham, St Etienne and Liverpool, from whom he has now parted, would take issue with that on a less figurative level. It is his chutzpah, his ability to sell himself, that has helped propel him to positions of influence in English football. But as he digested his departure from the post of director of football strategy at Anfield, it was possible to see this attribute as having come before a fall ÔÇô again.


The reaction to the news that Comolli would have to polish that CV and ping it around the market once more was polarised. The 39-year-old is a suave, multilingual university graduate, one of those guys who creates a good first impression and, of course, interviews well. He is fundamentally nice, a football-lover and someone with a ferocious dedication to his job.


Kenny Dalglish, the Liverpool manager, may not have seen eye-to-eye with him but he could never fault his work ethic. Comolli puts the hours in, regularly spending 12 or 13 in his office, studying matches and DVDs of players. It takes a toll on family life; how can it not? Herein lay the basis for his assertion that he was returning to France for "family reasons".


Comolli's friends lamented his failure to succeed at Anfield and they knew it was not for the want of trying. They wondered whether he had been cast as the spacegoat for the collective shortcomings of Dalglish, the technical staff and the squad.
Some of Comolli's friends have been made in high places, with Billy Beane, of Moneyball fame and a confidant of Liverpool's principal owner John W Henry, one. Comolli met Beane at a sports industry conference; Beane was impressed and, when the Fenway Sports Group took over at Anfield, he introduced Comolli to Henry. Comolli is adept at working a room, which is pretty important in his vocation. As an aside, Beane's "true hero", according to Arsenal's majority shareholder Stan Kroenke, is Wenger.

Comolli, though, has accumulated enemies or at least football people who have nothing good to say about him. They were shedding no tears over his demise at Liverpool. If he is treated with scorn by Wenger and others at Arsenal, then the same became true at Tottenham, where sources say the only discovery he made was the defender Beno?«t Assou-Ekotto.


Comolli likes to point out that on his three-year watch Tottenham signed success stories such as Dimitar Berbatov, Gareth Bale, Luka Modric and Heurelho Gomes, not to mention Assou-Ekotto, although there were plenty of misses, too. His claim, however, that it was he who conceived the capture of Berbatov was one of a number to go down badly. Arnesen had done the legwork on that deal. At Arsenal only Ga?½l Clichy was a Comolli recommendation.


Martin Jol, who was the Tottenham manager when Comolli arrived, clashed with him over signings and Harry Redknapp told the chairman, Daniel Levy, that he would not come to Tottenham in October 2008 if he had to work under a sporting director. The manager caught the mood at the club over Comolli. "Yeah, he should take all the credit, for sure," Redknapp has said, sarcastically.


Technical directors have not thrived in English football, where experienced managers such as Wenger, Dalglish and Redknapp demand control over team affairs. The curiosity, as Comolli may reflect post-Liverpool, is what happens when signings fail to justify the outlay and expectations.
 
Technical directors have not thrived in English football, where experienced managers such as Wenger, Dalglish and Redknapp demand control over team affairs.
 
Looking at that list, I certainly think he got more wrong than right. I'll give him credit for the likes of Corluka, Mido, Malbranque, Kaboul, Modric and Berbatov. To be honest though, people say sometimes that he unearthed the likes of Modric and Berbs, but as others have pointed out, other clubs were looking at them so it's not like he found them from nowhere like Wenger has done plenty of times in the pastm

Surely the opposite is usually pointed out? That they had many clubs who were aware of them or strongly interested in them but they came to us. Which is a credit to the people who made it happen, surely? I always say, read what Bale said about why he came here. Do we go about things in the same way with regards to targets now? You have to doubt it.

And the idea that Wenger found players from 'nowhere' is highly dubious. The likes of Anelka are pointed at but yet can you really be an 'unknown' when you're playing in the top flight in France? And for a club like PSG? He wasn't some youngster in the reserves. He'd made about a dozen appearances for one of the biggest clubs in France in their top flight. The same with Patrick Vieira. A regular in the French top flight for a couple of years before joining AC Milan. Maybe Wenger had a bit niche knowledge at this stage, having noT long before managed in France, but there is no way such players would fall under the radar now. I think this is partly why he hasn't 'found' many more since then.
 
Here's a list of Comolli's signings for us.

Alnwick ?ú1m - He's crap
Assou-Ekotto ?ú3m - Our left back of the past 4 years, now one of the best in the League
Bale ?ú7m - Massive success. Current value atleast 5x what we paid
Bent ?ú16m - Didn't have the best time here, scored goals but just didn't fit us well, sold for the same
Bentley ?ú15m - Disaster
Berbatov ?ú11m - Massive success, sold for ?ú31m
Chimbonda ?ú5m - Did ok
Corluka ?ú8m - Solid player
Ghaly ?ú2m - Personally I liked him, decent player but our idiotic fans decided to boo him and as we know he didn't react too well, sold for ?ú1m
Gilberto ?ú2m - Poor, only played a few games but did score against the Spammers
Giovani ?ú5m - Hasn't lived upto the hype
Gomes ?ú7m - Mixed. Some great and some bad moments
Gunter ?ú2m - Took a shot on him and he wasn't good enough, sold for the same
Hutton ?ú9m - Initially promising but turned out to be a poor signing, sold for ?ú4m
Kaboul 8m - Didn't work out initially but now he's a rock and our only reliable CB we have left
Malbranque ?ú3m - Decent player for us at the time, sold for roughly the same
Mido ?ú5m - Was very good the season before but didn't take well to being 4th choice, got fat and was sold for about the same
Modric ?ú16m - Like Berbatov, a massive success, current market value is double what we paid
Murphy ?ú2m - Never really got a look in, sold for around the same I think
Pav ?ú14m - Overpriced, scored some goals but not a massive success, sold for ?ú8m
Prince-Boateng ?ú5m - Didn't work out but as you can see now at Milan he always had the talent, think he was sold for ?ú4m
Rasiak ?ú2m - Ok he was terrible
Rocha ?ú3m - He was crap
Taarabt ?ú3m - Always had talent but attitude let him down, sold for ?ú1m
Woodgate ?ú7m - Always remembered for his winner against Chelsea, a great CB but ruined by injuries. Released
Zokora ?ú8m - Not the greatest but not the worst either, sold for around the same

So a mixed boat, but personally I think his good signings outweighed the bad and we've benefited from that over the past couple of years. Unfortunately for him some of his signings took their time to realise their ability which cost him, maybe if Harry had come in earlier then he wouldn't have been fired(although I know Harry wouldn't have worked under a dof)

He wasn't here for Rasiak.

I'm less concerned about the fails as opposed to the successes, unless they are very, very wasteful. Which they weren't. Only Bentley really falls into that category and I think that can be balanced up by the fact that Berbatov, Modric, Bale, Kaboul and BAE were signed for about 43m and you're probably talking about nearly trebling that figure now, if we sold them all. That is some net increase in asset value!

People rightly point out that Harry has signed xyz player who 'did a job' for a while and we got most of our money back. So it is no big deal. In some instances, these signings are highly praised. So why not the same for the likes of Corluka, Woodgate, Malbranque, Chimbonda etc? The thing is, we lost Carrick, Keane and Berbatov and at the time, these sales were considered absolute disasters. There was near hysteria on here, especially with regards to the Berbatov sale. It is therefore notable that we managed to continue seamlessly with new players coming to the fore to replace the others in importance. This was no small task. My feeling now remains: is this likely to happen if Modric and Bale depart? I don't think so - not on the evidence of the last 4 years.
 
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Looking at that list, I certainly think he got more wrong than right. I'll give him credit for the likes of Corluka, Mido, Malbranque, Kaboul, Modric and Berbatov. To be honest though, people say sometimes that he unearthed the likes of Modric and Berbs, but as others have pointed out, other clubs were looking at them so it's not like he found them from nowhere like Wenger has done plenty of times in the past, but I give him credit for taking a punt of them all the same.

The bad ones:
Zokora
Rocha
Taarabt
Chimbonda
Bentley
Boateng
Hutton
Lee Young Pyo

The truly terrible ones:
Alnwick
Ghaly
Rasiak

Ironic that we signed Bent when we didn't need him and yet we haven't gone out and bought a striker in the last 3 windows when it's obvious to everyone except Levy/Redknapp/whoever you want to blame that we clearly are crying out for one!



I don't think Pyo was a disaster signing, he was solid enough without offering much going forward but wasn't exactly a flop. Same with Zokora I wouldnt call him a flop but he didnt excel either, he is only spoken of badly because he replaced Carrick that summer when the anger levels were high but played in the right system with the right players alongside him he will do well.

Plus he gave ace comedy moments, who remembers him bursting clear in the league cup final running from half way only to hammer it 50 yds over the bar on the rebound when clean though
 
Comolli actually sold Kaboul, didn't he? Harry brought him back from Pompey. So I don't think Comolli can take any credit for a player even he lost faith in.
 
I don't think Pyo was a disaster signing, he was solid enough without offering much going forward but wasn't exactly a flop

I agree but like with Rasiak, he wasn't signed under Comolli anyway. He joined 1st September 2005, ie after the summer window had closed.
 
People tend to undervalue Zokora because he came into a team without Carrick. They were supposed to play together. Teamed with Jenas anyone would struggle.
 
What people don't get with Comolli is his job was

- to help the team & manager succeed on pitch by buying the right players for the system/needs/etc.

That is where he was (at least at Spurs) a total disaster. It's not about did he buy a decent player for decent price, it was did he support the manager, replace the players that needed being replaced, improve the first team squad and get the club better results.

Fact is, he constantly undermined Jol, both Jol/Ramos have indicated repeatedly he didn't get the players they wanted or to cover the positions they needed.

It is only when Harry arrived we started to do amazing things like, ohhh, we need a DM, let's go buy one ... stunning how that's actually worked ...

fudge Comolli, look how much success he brought Pool, just wish the Scum would take him back.
 
Today they have also sacked the goalkeeping coach and the club doctor :)

so they are getting rid of evryone except the man who is most to blame for the current malaise in the league....couldnt make it up
 
Fact is, he constantly undermined Jol, both Jol/Ramos have indicated repeatedly he didn't get the players they wanted or to cover the positions they needed

As has been pointed ad infitum, we tried to sign some of these players but we had serious competition from other clubs who were also willing to pay them more. It might have helped had Jol put forward these targets before that serious competition was lining up for them! As Bale showed, getting in their early can be crucial. This is what enabled us to sign many of our current best performers - it certainly wasn't Champions League football that we could offer or the money! We'd just finished 11th when signing Modric, for example. So how was that Comolli 'undermining' him? Jol could put forward who he liked and we tried to sign them. No different to now. The only way this could possibly work is to suggest that Levy wasn't serious about getting these players and knew the offers he was making would be turned down - which is a little too much on the side of a conspiracy theory for my liking. So he was 'lumbered' with what we could realistically sign*, much as had been the case under Arnesen (without the confusion of Jol getting involved in any way with suggesting players)... this is discussed below....

It is only when Harry arrived we started to do amazing things like, ohhh, we need a DM, let's go buy one ... stunning how that's actually worked ...

Well, true to an extent but the case is always hopelessly over-exaggerated. The one DM we initially signed was within less a year considered one of the weaker links in the team and was being eased out by a player who was already at the club. Of the squad that finished 4th in 09/10, 11 players out of a mainstay squad of about 20, were also there under Jol: Bale, Defoe, Keane, Kaboul, Huddlestone, Lennon, Jenas, Dawson, Corluka, King and BAE. Not many squad fillers there! On top of that, there was Gomes, Bentley Modric, Rose and Pav who arrived under Comolli. Redknapp's only significant changes to the squad were to sort out the dire striker situation. Add in the resigned Defoe, Keane and then Crouch, Willo and Bassong and that is the 4th place squad for 09/10.

And that striker imbalance was by no means created by Comolli. Comolli was out in Spain on the last day of the window (while Levy was in Manchester selling Berbatov) trying to get deals done for either Sergio Garcia or Diego Milito or both to replace Keane and Berbatov. Anyone who thinks it was his decision to wait until the last minute to get those deals done just hasn't been paying attention to the way the chairman has operated for the last decade. Either way, it was clear we knew we were going to be left unbalanced up front and we were trying to deal with it.

On top of those players listed above, Jol also had Berbatov, Keane, Bent and Defoe up front. Redknapp can hardly be said to have improved upon that, even 4 years on! So how exactly was that squad seriously unbalanced or particularly poor? What a burden for Jol to have to work out how to use the likes of BAE, Bale, Kaboul, Berbatov, Keane etc. You look at that squad now and it was brimming with talent and potential. It just required a few minor tweaks, not a major overhaul. It is true that Redknapp got them further down the line when they were maybe more settled and had developed further but even this doesn't stand up to scrutiny given how quickly things turned around in Redknapp's first full season, when even more of the players that Jol had available were part of his squad.

* It is amusing that Jol always tended to point out the worst performers signed over this period but this came back to bite him a while back when he complained about Comolli signing BAE! Obviously, he was unaware of his turnaround! :lol:
 
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What people don't get with Comolli is his job was

- to help the team & manager succeed on pitch by buying the right players for the system/needs/etc.

That is where he was (at least at Spurs) a total disaster. It's not about did he buy a decent player for decent price, it was did he support the manager, replace the players that needed being replaced, improve the first team squad and get the club better results.

Fact is, he constantly undermined Jol, both Jol/Ramos have indicated repeatedly he didn't get the players they wanted or to cover the positions they needed.

It is only when Harry arrived we started to do amazing things like, ohhh, we need a DM, let's go buy one ... stunning how that's actually worked ...

fudge Comolli, look how much success he brought Pool, just wish the Scum would take him back.

=D>
 
I don't think Pyo was a disaster signing, he was solid enough without offering much going forward but wasn't exactly a flop. Same with Zokora I wouldnt call him a flop but he didnt excel either, he is only spoken of badly because he replaced Carrick that summer when the anger levels were high but played in the right system with the right players alongside him he will do well.

Plus he gave ace comedy moments, who remembers him bursting clear in the league cup final running from half way only to hammer it 50 yds over the bar on the rebound when clean though

I never said Zokora or Lee were disasters, but I would hardly call them a "success" either. The only thing that impressed me about Zokora was his engine. I remember the Carling Cup 2nd leg against Burnley that went to extra time. Everyone else looked fudged except for him, he looked like he could keep going for another 90 minutes! But to say he was woeful in front of goal is being kind, don't remember him playing any killer passes either. He also didn't do things that all good DM's do i.e. break up play and make life easier for the defence like Parker does. I never rated Lee and have made feelings about his lack of abilty clear on numerous occasions.

One of Comolli's most memorable mistakes was signing Bent. There were other areas of our team in much more dire need of attention, we simply didn't need Bent when we already had Keane, Berbatov and Defoe, especially for ?ú16m!

People are right to bring up his failure to recognise that we needed a proper DM, but he also dropped a gonad by not signing a better keeper in my opinion. Looking back at Robbo's time in goal, it's amazing we put up with him for so long!
 
Comolli, as previously mentioned, brought in Taarabt. After leaving Spurs, this is what Taarabt had to say (you probably already know this):

"The man who took me to Tottenham was Damien Comolli, now at Liverpool. He was at Arsenal then. But, when I was going to go to Arsenal, he moved to Tottenham. He told me: 'Come to Tottenham. We want to do like they do at Arsenal and take the best young players in the world. You're going to have a better chance there.' I believed him. This was a mistake and I regret it. Tottenham tried to do it like Arsenal but it's a different culture. I would have had a better chance at Arsenal. I would progress with Arsene Wenger. He is a legend in France, one of the best managers in the world".

So, you can see that some ****s only came to us because of Comolli, unless that was just Taarabt.
 
I don't think Pyo was a disaster signing, he was solid enough without offering much going forward but wasn't exactly a flop. Same with Zokora I wouldnt call him a flop but he didnt excel either, he is only spoken of badly because he replaced Carrick that summer when the anger levels were high but played in the right system with the right players alongside him he will do well.

Plus he gave ace comedy moments, who remembers him bursting clear in the league cup final running from half way only to hammer it 50 yds over the bar on the rebound when clean though

He was a lot better than Ekotto that's for sure.
 
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