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Liverpool made some truly atrocious signings when Brendan Rodgers was in charge and thankfully, Jurgen Klopp has done very well not to repeat the mistakes of his predecessor.
The players signed during Rodgers’ first summer as manager of Liverpool were Joe Allen, Fabio Borini, Oussama Assaidi, Nuri Sahin and Samed Yesil.
Allen lasted the entire Rodgers era but was sold in the first summer after Klopp took over without ever proving why Liverpool spent £15 million on him in 2012. Borini was sent on loan to Sunderland a season after joining the club and later sold to the same club where he experienced relegation. Assaidi rarely played for the club and was also loaned out before he was sold to Al-Ahli Dubai. Sahin’s loan spell was ended midway and Samed Yesil only made two appearances for the club and now plays for Panionios in Greece.
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You get the picture, don’t you? However, some of the players who flopped at Liverpool over the years went on to have successful careers elsewhere. In fact, four such players have gone on to play for Spain at the senior level!
So take a look at these 10 famous Liverpool flops who are thriving elsewhere.
#10. Jonjo Shelvey - Swansea and Newcastle United
Shelvey signed for Liverpool, aged 18, from Charlton Athletic for a fee of £1.7 million. He made 15 appearances for the Reds in his debut season playing under both Roy Hodgson and Kenny Dalglish.
The following season, he was sent on loan to Blackpool in the Championship where he scored 6 times in 10 games before Liverpool recalled him after a season-ending injury to Lucas Leiva.
By the end of the 2012/13 season, Shelvey played 69 games for Liverpool and signed a new contract in July 2012 only for the club to sell him to Swansea in July 2013.
Shelvey became an important player for a Swansea team that changed managers constantly. He played 96 games for the Swans scoring 10 times before joining relegation-threatened Newcastle United. However, his form and the presence of Rafa Benitez was not enough to save the Toons from being relegated.
Although Newcastle were relegated, Shelvey chose to stay at the club and helped them gain promotion immediately. During the campaign, he played 42 league games, scoring five goals and setting up eight more. He was also rightfully named in the PFA Championship Team of the Year.
Back in the Premier League, Shelvey continued to be an instrumental member of the Newcastle side as they defied odds and finished 10th in the league with Shelvey playing 30 games.
There were calls to include him in the squad for the World Cup as his brilliant passing range would bring something more to the squad. However, such calls were ignored. That being said, he is still only 26 and can definitely add to the 6 caps he has for England, five of which he won while playing for Swansea City.
#9. Peter Gulacsi - RB Leipzig and Red Bull Salzburg
Liverpool have had a goalkeeping crisis since the departure of Pepe Reina in 2013 and a huge section of the fans want to see both Simon Mignolet and Loris Karius replaced as the club’s #1 this summer.
While several goalkeepers including Adam Bogdan have come, tried and failed in between the sticks, Peter Gulacsi is one former Liverpool player who never had the opportunity to play for Liverpool at the senior level.
The Hungarian went on loan to Hereford United, Tranmere Rovers and Hull City during his time in England before he was offloaded to Red Bull Salzburg in 2013, in the same summer that Reina was sold.
Gulacsi won the league and league cup in both his seasons at the Austrian club before he joined Salzburg’s sister club RB Leipzig in July 2015. He helped Leipzig gain promotion to the Bundesliga in his first season and then continued to be the club’s first choice keeper in the German top tier.
He played 33 Bundesliga games during Leipzig’s debut season in the Bundesliga, at the end of which, they were 2nd in the league!
He was also named as the best goalkeeper of the autumn part of the 2017/18 Bundesliga season by German sports magazine Kicker.
#8. Brad Jones - Feyenoord
Peter Gulacsi is not the only goalkeeper on this list, he is accompanied by the veteran goalkeeper Brad Jones.
Jones was Liverpool’s 2nd or 3rd choice goalkeeper throughout his stint and was rather unconvincing in goal. However, he did enjoy a dream Premier League debut for the Reds when he came off the bench to replace Liverpool’s second choice goalkeeper Doni and saved a penalty with his first touch.
Due to the suspension of Pepe Reina and Doni, he was in goal for Liverpool’s 2-1 win over Everton in the FA Cup semi-final. In the process, he made history by being the first Liverpool goalkeeper to make his first four appearances for the club in four different competitions.
At the end of the 2014/15 season, Jones was released by Liverpool after playing 25 games for the club in four seasons.
He joined League One club Bradford City upon leaving Liverpool only to be released a few months later by mutual consent. His next destination was the Netherlands and it is here that he found success.
Jones joined NEC on a six-month deal and after impressing in the 17 games he played, NEC wanted to offer him a new deal. However, he turned it down and joined Dutch giants Feyenoord on a one year contract.
The Australian kept 17 clean sheets during the 2016/17 season, becoming the first Feyenoord goalkeeper to touch the 14 clean sheets mark for the first time in 20 years! In addition, he helped the club win its first league title in 18 years.
Jones was also named Dutch goalkeeper of the year in 2016.
His excellent debut season earned him a new contract keeping him at the club for another two years. He added two more trophies to his cabinet in 2017/18, winning the Johan Cruyff Shield and the KNVB Cup.
Jones was part of the Australia team that played at the 2010 FIFA World Cup. However, he had to leave the team after his six-year-old son Luca was diagnosed with leukemia and Luca passed away a year later after battling with cancer.
It is heartwarming to see Jones overcome such a huge personal tragedy and be where he is today. It is also poetic justice that Jones will be part of the Australian team in Russia for the 2018 World Cup.
#7. Conor Coady - Wolverhampton Wanderers
Coady was one of the brightest prospects in the Liverpool academy. He captained the England U-17 team to the European Championship in 2010 and was also the captain of England’s U20 team for the 2013 U-20 World Cup. However, he only played two games for Liverpool before joining Huddersfield Town in the Championship in 2014.
He played 45 out of a possible 46 games for Huddersfield in the Championship in his first season away from Liverpool. Although Huddersfield finished 16th, Coady’s form earned him the club's young player of the year award and a move to Wolverhampton where he has played 130 games in his three seasons combined.
The arrival of Nuno Espirito Santo ahead of the 2017/18 season changed Coady’s fortunes. He was moved from his defensive midfield position to the centre of a three-man defence and that has brought the best out of him. Although Danny Bath was the official captain of Wolves, Coady wore the armband for most of the season as Bath didn’t feature in Espirito’s plans.
Coady played in 43 games as Wolves earned promotion to the Premier League and he was named in the Championship Team of the Season. The 25-year-old is likely to be named the club captain next season as Wolves prepare for life in the Premier League.
#6. Mikel San Jose - Athletic Bilbao
San Jose is the only player on this list who left Liverpool before the Rodgers era. In fact, San Jose left Liverpool when Rafa Benitez was still in charge.
The Spaniard joined the Liverpool reserves after arriving from Athletic Bilbao in 2007, only for him to return to the same club on loan two years later. He later revealed that his decision to leave Liverpool was because it was difficult for him to get playing time.
"There were four centre-backs who were magnificent - Jamie Carragher, Dani Agger, Martin Skrtel and Sami Hyypia - so it was difficult to get minutes. I knew returning home would give me more chances. At the beginning it was hard here as well, I didn't get many opportunities, but it was a step I understood I had to take. There was no better place to take that step than back home."
After a year on loan at Bilbao during which he played 30 times and scored three goals, the centre-back, who is also capable of playing as a defensive midfielder, opted to sign for the Basque club permanently without ever playing for Liverpool.
San Jose has gone on to play 348 games for Bilbao, scoring 36 goals. During this period, he won the U21 Euro with Spain, won the Supercopa de Espana in 2015, finished runners-up three cup competitions with Bilbao and played 7 games for Spain at the senior level. In fact, he was part of the Spain squad for Euro 2016.
A defender of his experience, versatility and ball playing abilities may come in handy under Jurgen Klopp, right?
#5. Sebastian Coates - Sporting CP
When Coates arrived at Liverpool in 2011, he had just helped Uruguay win the Copa America and was also named the tournament’s best young player. However, the highlight of his Liverpool career was scoring a stunning goal against QPR with a scissor kick from the edge of the box.
He was fighting for a starting spot with the more experienced Jamie Carragher, Daniel Agger and Martin Skrtel. Couple that with injuries and the result was 24 appearances for Liverpool in four years during which he went on loan to Nacional and Sunderland.
Coates was sold to Sunderland but in a season and a half, he only made 31 appearances before he was loaned out to to Sporting CP. In Portugal, he finally became a starter.
He is one of Sporting’s regular starters and has played 99 games for the club so far, helping them win the Portuguese League Cup in 2017/18 and also finish 2nd, 3rd and 3rd respectively in the league in his three seasons.
He has also returned to the national team setup and is part of a strong Uruguayan defence comprising Diego Godin and Jose Maria Gimenez.
#4. Mario Balotelli - OGC Nice
You either hate him or you love him, there is rarely an in between for Mario Balotelli. Signing the Italian was a big gamble by Liverpool and it was one that failed miserably.
He was signed for £16 million in 2014 and in his first season, he played 28 games in all competitions, of which only 14 were as starters and scored just four goals.
The following season, he was sent on loan to Milan where he again failed scoring thrice in 23 games. In 2016, with Jurgen Klopp at the helm, Liverpool decided to cut their losses and sell him to Nice on a free transfer on deadline day.
His reputation preceded him and hence, at Nice, he only signed a one year contract but an impressive debut season during which he scored 17 goals in 28 games earned him a one-year extension. In 2017/18, he improved on his previous tally by scoring 26 times in 38 games.
In May 2018, he was recalled to the national team for the first time since the 2014 FIFA World Cup by his former Manchester City manager Roberto Mancini. He marked his return by scoring a goal against Saudi Arabia.
The next three players on the list are the ones that have defied expectations and gone on to play for Spain!
#3. Suso - AC Milan
When Liverpool beat interest from Real Madrid and Barcelona to sign Suso before he turned 17, he was a huge prospect. Two years later, he made his Premier League debut for Liverpool as a half-time substitute against Manchester United with Liverpool a man down. He played a role in Steven Gerrard’s opening goal and also completed all his passes.
He made 20 appearances in his first season without scoring and spent the next season on loan at La Liga side Almeria. In 2014/15, Rodgers found Suso excess to needs and the Spaniard only played one game in which he scored his only goal for Liverpool. Midway through the season, he was sold to Milan for just €1.3 million as his contract was expiring in the summer.
Suso’s life at Milan was not easy either. He started slowly and played just 7 times in his first year at the club before going on loan to Genoa for the second half of the 2015/16 season. At Genoa, Suso scored six and assisted one in 19 games.
Upon returning to Milan, he became a crucial player for the club, scoring 15 goals and assisting a further 17 in 95 games. He also helped Milan win the 2016 Supercoppa Italiana by beating Juventus on penalties. Suso assisted Milan's goal in a game that ended 1-1 after extra time and also scored his penalty in the shootout.
His form for Milan also earned him his first call-up for the national team and he made his debut against Russia on 14 November 2017, five days before he turned 24.
Suso has been linked with a move away from Milan and one of the clubs he has been linked with is Liverpool.
#2. Luis Alberto - Lazio
Luis Alberto was one of eight players who joined Liverpool ahead of the 2013/14 season and the fact that the two players who made the most impact at Liverpool from those eight are Simon Mignolet and Kolo Toure speaks a lot.
Alberto played 12 games for Liverpool in 13/14 without scoring, assisting only once. His only three starts for a Liverpool team that pushed for the title were in domestic cup competitions.
Unsurprisingly, he spent the next two seasons on loan. First at Malaga and the next at Deportivo La Coruna. In 2016, Liverpool finally got him off their books with Lazio spending only €4 million to acquire the Spaniard’s services.
Alberto’s first season with the Rome club saw him play just 10 games in all competitions while finding the back of the net once. However, the 2017/18 season was the start of something special.
Alberto scored 12 goals and assisted 19 in 47 games across all competitions for a Lazio team that scored the most goals in Serie A this season. His 14 league assists were only bettered by Kevin De Bruyne and Leroy Sane across Europe’s Top 5 leagues. He also won the 2017 Supercoppa Italiana with Lazio.
On 11 November 2017, Alberto made his debut for Spain against Costa Rica. After the season he has had, maybe Liverpool should look at him as an alternative for Nabil Fekir after that deal fell through.
#1. Iago Aspas - Celta Vigo
Aspas only played one season for Liverpool, back in 2013/14, and he spent almost the entire season as a back up to Luis Suarez and Daniel Sturridge. He only scored one goal for the club before he was first sent on loan to Sevilla and later sold to the same team a year later.
Aspas won the Europa League while he was at Sevilla, but he was a squad player there too and was immediately sold to Celta Vigo, the club he joined Liverpool from.
His second stint with Celta has been phenomenal! He scored 67 times in 126 games and his exploits won him the Zarra trophy given to the highest scoring Spaniard in the La Liga in the 2016/17 and 2017/18 seasons.
In 2016, he also received his first call-up to the national team and he made his debut as a substitute against England with Spain losing 2-0. He marked the occasion with a brilliant goal to make the score 2-1 and the game finished 2-2.
Now, Aspas has played 10 games for Spain and scored 5 goals. He is not only a part of Spain’s squad for the World Cup, he could be starting for one of the World Cup’s favourites in Russia.
Aspas has come a long way from being a Liverpool flop.
Do you think any of these players can have a future at Liverpool now?
