Liverpool FC in 2011/12

[bickster]

Dalglish insists that he made the decision on every transfer, Comolli just did the leg work. So Kenny still happy to take the responsibility for the shite they've signed.

Can you imagine what squad morale would be like if he said the opposite? He simply has to say that no matter what.

[villaajax]

Cruyff linked with the DOF job?! :shock:

[Zatman]

He just took a job in Mexico

[bickster]

He just took a job in Mexico

He must have family out there!

[djamfisher]

I really hope Dalglish stays at this scum bag club, will be good to see them struggling as badly as us next season. Will probably be the only positive from next season.

[Jimzk5]

I'd have Comolli at Villa the moment.

Depends how you view his time at spurs, he signed ekotto, bale, modric, kaboul, kp boetang for big money but at a very young age, it took 3 years for them to grow into players, he signs players with potential. Not playera for now which is why it wouldn't work at villa. We need players to make an impact now, not in 3 seasons.

[BOF]

Depends how you view his time at spurs, he signed ekotto, bale, modric, kaboul, kp boetang for big money but at a very young age, it took 3 years for them to grow into players, he signs players with potential. Not playera for now which is why it wouldn't work at villa. We need players to make an impact now, not in 3 seasons.

According to most who have worked with him that's nothing but utter codswollop. He signed Ekotto @ Spurs and Clichy @ Arsenal. That's the extent of it. I thought the same as you but seemingly Comolli's biggest fan is Comolli and his CV reflects that.

Here's an article detailing how 'well' he is thought of.

Damien Comolli is never knowingly undersold – just ask Arsène Wenger

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

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 – 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 Arsène 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 – 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 scapegoat 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 Benoît 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 Gaël 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.

[villa4europe]

cruyff is only an advisor to chivas so i dont think that will stop it from happening

personally though i think it would be amazing if it happened, RAWK would go in to meltdown, the rags would get all excited, the "next year" brigade will be throwing a street party, keeny will be getting his crown polished ... because next year they will obviously play just like barcelona

i dont think any of them will stand back take a long hard look at how much work cruyff put in to barcelona, how many others invested in to it too and mainly just how long it took to work, this time next year they'll be around 7th again and they'll be hounding him out

[Jimzk5]

Excellent article bof. In short. Dont hire him

[BOF]

W.T.F. ?

[Stevo985]

Kenny's hood is the wrong colour for a start

[Zatman]

personally though i think it would be amazing if it happened, RAWK would go in to meltdown, the rags would get all excited, the "next year" brigade will be throwing a street party, keeny will be getting his crown polished ... because next year they will obviously play just like barcelona

i dont think any of them will stand back take a long hard look at how much work cruyff put in to barcelona, how many others invested in to it too and mainly just how long it took to work, this time next year they'll be around 7th again and they'll be hounding him out

think it be interesting as Cruyff has probably the biggest ego in history of football as him and Dalglish be a disaster from start

[VillaGoMarching]

Apart from not signing many/any black players where else does the insinuation come from?

[TrentVilla]

That article on the previous page is an interesting read but it isn't entirely accurate in my opinion, certainly not in terms of his time at Spurs.

I can't comment on his time at Arsenal, I've no reason to query the words of Wenger and there are clear quotes to support the author of the article in the summary of his time there. He may well have over egged his CV when going for the Spurs job in terms of his involvement at Spurs but who doesn't do that?

The article though rather skims over his time at Spurs and no wonder because it the facts and the quotes don't really fit the articles agenda. An agenda which seems to be to rubbish Comolli's name, perhaps the journalist is one of the few to enjoy a good relationship with Dalglish.

When the wheels came off Martin Jol's reign at Spurs he was very very quick to point the finger at Comolli who he felt underminded him over the players signed the previous summer.

The story goes that Jol gave a list of targets to Comolli and key positions that he wanted players signed for, what he got was very different.

Shortly after his sacking Jol said "I felt the squad would be unbalanced with these signings and it proved to be the case." He went on to say the following;

"When Frank Arnesen [who was Comolli's predecessor before moving to Chelsea] was director of football we spoke together about the players to bring to the club. But I did not have the same relationship with the next man.

"I think the club wanted to invest in younger players because they wanted to make money on them in the future. The decisions were not being made for football reasons. I knew that in the summer and I realised my position was becoming very difficult."

Jol himself said that Comolli was responsible for the signings that were made in this period signings which included;

Gareth Bale

Alan Hutton

Kevin- Prince Boateng

Giovani dos Santos

Adel Taarabt

Younes Kaboul

Luka Modric

Benoit Assou-Ekotto

Heurlho Gomes

David Bentley

Vedran Corluka

Roman Pavlyuchenko

Demitri Berbatov

Now there are some bad signings in there just as there have been some bad ones at Liverpool but there are some bloody fantastic ones as well.

Now Dalglish might say he was jointly responsible for the signings at Liverpool but he has to say that as someone has already stated. I think he was largely responsible for the signings at Liverpool which is why he paid the price with his job because as Jol said it Comolli did his own thing.

At Spurs Jol lost his job and Ramos after him because they couldn't get the best out of the players Comolli signed, then Harry came along and got them to gel. Harry is as egotistical as they come so is it really any surprise he didn't give credit to Comolli?

I can't help but think in time it might just turn out that the players Comolli signed aren't the problem its the manager that is the problem. I think Liverpool might just have sacked the wrong man.

[Zatman]

Apart from not signing many/any black players where else does the insinuation come from?

maybe you missed the Suarez/Evra incident

[CI]

3 wins in 14 at home following today's home loss to WBA

Pressure growing on the King :-)

[Rodders]

bet hodgson enjoyed that one too west brom are one point behind liverpool now.

[villa4europe]

everyone should follow @RAWK_meltdown on twitter

looks like they are already questioning if their goal posts are the right size after hitting the woodwork for the 30th time this year

[jimmythomas]

lol liverpool. Most entertaining team of the season by far. They've been so awful lately that I don't even get much pleasure out of seeing them lose anymore.

[CarewsEyebrowDesigner]

ha.