"It was not fair" - Liverpool's former director of football discusses Anfield spell

Liverpool's former director of football Damien Comolli has spoken about his time at Anfield, labelling the treatment he received at the club as "not fair".

Comolli arrived on Merseyside back in 2010, appointed by owners Fenway Sports Group in one of their first major additions at the club.

Having previously spent time in north London with Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur, Comolli was drafted in to head up a data-driven approach to recruitment as Liverpool's new owners aimed for a more sustainable transfer strategy than some of their rivals.

FSG have always prioritised value for money in the market, idolising the hugely successful "Moneyball" strategy adopted by Billy Beane at Oakland Athletics in Major League Baseball.

The "Moneyball" approach, which has been utilised by clubs like Brighton and Brentford in the Premier League, seeks to exploit undervalued areas in the market, mainly using statistical, data-driven models to identify talent.

Comolli was regarded as someone who could employ such a strategy at Liverpool, however, his 18 months at the club were mixed.

The director of football, who is now working with Ligue 1 outfit and Liverpool's Europa League group stage opponents Toulouse, was responsible for the acquisition of players like Jordan Henderson and Luis Suarez, but was also heavily involved in deals for the likes of Andy Carroll, Charlie Adam and Sebastien Coates.

In April 2012, Comolli and Liverpool parted ways, but the Frenchman has never quite accepted the breakdown of his relationship with FSG.

Speaking to ESPN, Comolli stated: "It was not fair what happened to me at Liverpool, I heard that a few years ago from a connection between FSG and RedBird [who bought a minority stake in Liverpool in 2021.].

"When I got the job at Spurs, I was 32-and-a-half [years old.] I'm 51 now, soon to be 52. In 20 years, a lot of things have changed me as a leader and the industry accepting data, plus data being much better than it was before."

Liverpool have persisted with a data-driven approach to signing players, although that is the case for almost all modern football clubs, with Michael Edwards eventually tasked with replacing Comolli.

The rest is history, as they say, with Edwards responsible for signing the majority of Liverpool's star players in years gone by, including the likes of Virgil van Dijk, Alisson, Mohamed Salah and Sadio Mane.

Edwards was replaced by his understudy Julian Ward after he departed Anfield in 2022, with Jorg Schmadtke having since taken over from Ward on a short-term basis.

Schmadtke was responsible for signing four players during the summer - Dominik Szoboszlai, Alexis Mac Allister, Ryan Gravenberch and Wataru Endo - and could extend his deal with the Reds in the future.