6 Liverpool flops who went on to succeed at another club

In the last eight years, five different managers have been at the helm of Liverpool with Rafa Benitez being the first and Jurgen Klopp being the most recent one. The constant change of managers often led to rapid changes to the squad.

In the current Liverpool squad, after the departure of Lucas Leiva, there is no player left who played under Benitez. Jordan Henderson and Jon Flanagan are the only remaining players who played under Kenny Dalglish and the latter is also the only one who has played under Roy Hodgson.

Jurgen Klopp has already sold nine first team players signed by his predecessors with a few more expected to be added to that list this window.

During this constant overhaul in the squad, many players have flopped at the club owing to different reasons. However, some of these departing players have found their feet elsewhere and rectified their image as Liverpool flops.

#6 Mario Balotelli

The winners of the prestigious Golden Boy award given for the best Under-21 player in Europe have gone on to have careers of varied success. The likes of Lionel Messi, Cesc Fabregas, Sergio Aguero and Wayne Rooney are modern day legends.

However, there are others like Anderson, Alexandre Pato and Mario Balotelli have struggled to live up to the initial hype. Of these three, the Italian is the only one currently playing in Europe and with any chance of salvaging his career.

Also read: Liverpool sign Robertson from Hull City

Balotelli’s Liverpool stint was a disaster. In 28 games, he scored four goals and it doesn’t give the full picture. A return to Milan on loan was equally bad as he found the back of the net only thrice.

After two seasons on the club’s books, Liverpool decided to sell Balotelli to Nice for free on deadline day in 2016 and he was only offered a one-year deal by the Ligue 1 club despite being represented by someone as influential as Mino Raiola. The only way Liverpool will recoup any money from Balotelli is through their sell on clause.

Working under Nice coach Lucien Favre revived Balotelli. He scored 17 goals of which 15 came in the league and thus helped Nice qualify for the Champions League.

Credit to Balotelli as he took a significant pay cut when he joined Nice as he had his heart set on performing again. His efforts were rewarded with a new contract in June 2017.

#5 Peter Gulacsi

Liverpool have been going through a goalkeeping headache ever since the departure of Pepe Reina. Simon Mignolet, Loris Karius, Brad Jones, Danny Ward and Adam Bogdan have stood in goal for Liverpool in the last four seasons.

In the same summer that Reina went on loan to Napoli and Mignolet arrived, Liverpool sold Hungarian keeper Peter Gulacsi to Austrian club Red Bull Salzburg. From there, he went on to play for their sister club RB Leipzig when the German club was in the second division.

He helped the club earn promotion to the German top flight but only became the undisputed number one keeper at the club last season while playing in the Bundesliga. The 27-year-old started 33 league games out of 34 as Leipzig finished second and qualified for the UEFA Champions League.

Gulacsi never made an appearance for Liverpool but is now playing for a club in the Champions League. Maybe, Liverpool gave up on the player too soon.

#4 Iago Aspas

Iago Aspas made his debut for Spain after leaving Liverpool

Iago Aspas never settled into life in the Premier League despite a great show in pre season and it is hard to blame him. His preferred role is as a striker but the Luis Suarez and Daniel Sturridge show of 2013-14 meant that Aspas was often benched or played out wide when given a chance.

He had the opportunity to play up top in an FA Cup match as Suarez and Sturridge were rested and he scored his only Liverpool goal in that game.

Aspas left Liverpool for Sevilla on loan in 2014 and won the Europa League a year later with the club. However, he was used as a squad player. Sevilla signed the Spaniard from Liverpool permanently in 2015 and sold him to Celta Vigo on the same day.

Upon returning to Celta, Aspas found his mojo again. He has scored 44 goals in 89 games for the La Liga club in two seasons and it earned him a call up to the Spanish national team.

He marked his international debut with a goal against England in a 2-2 draw at Wembley

#3 Brad Jones

Brad Jones is fondly remembered by Liverpool fans for his memorable club debut. Signed under Roy Hodgson, Jones was initially Liverpool’s third choice keeper.

During the 2011-12 season, Liverpool’s first and second choice keepers, Pepe Reina and Doni, were sent off in consecutive games forcing Jones to come off the bench against Blackburn Rovers to make his Liverpool debut.

His first touch of the ball for Liverpool was to save a penalty which he celebrated by pointing to the skies in memory of his son who Luca who had passed away a few months ago due to leukaemia.

After being released by Liverpool in 2015, he joined Bradford on loan but soon had his contract terminated by mutual agreement. Unable to find success in England’s lower league, he moved to Netherlands to play for NEC on a 6-month deal and turned out to be an inspired signing.

NEC wanted to keep Jones at the end of his short contract but he got a better offer from Feyenoord and what a move that turned out to be.

Aged 34, he signed a one-year deal with the club and played 32 out of 34 games in goal as Feyenoord were crowned Champions for the first time in 18 years. Jones kept 17 cleansheets during the title run and became the first Feyenoord goalkeeper in 20 years to have more than 14 cleansheets in a season.

The Champions have now rewarded Jones with a new two-year contract.

#2 Sebastian Coates

Coates now plays for Portuguese giants Sporting CP

There was plenty of hype when Liverpool signed Sebastian Coates in 2011 as he was named the Best Young Player of Copa America 2011 which Uruguay won and also because the previous Uruguayan Liverpool signed was Luis Suarez.

Coates spent the majority of his first season in England as an understudy to Daniel Agger, Martin Skrtel and Jamie Carragher but he did score one of the goals of the season with a stunning scissor kick from the edge of the box against QPR.

A ligament injury while playing for Uruguay in 2013 severely hampered his progress and upon returning from the injury, he first went on loan to Sunderland before joining them permanently.

Surprisingly, in January 2016, Coates joined Portuguese giants Sporting on loan and quickly became a starter at the club. He joined the Champions League club permanently in 2017 and played in 32 games as the club finished third behind Benfica and Porto.

#1 Suso

Suso scored 7 goals and assisted 9 in the Serie A last season

Unlike the other players on this list, the sale of Suso could be one Liverpool could regret in the future.

The Spaniard broke into the Liverpool first team under Brendan Rodgers before going on loan to Spain and later signing for AC Milan in 2015.

He struggled to nail down a starting role at Milan initially but a loan spell at Genoa in 2016 helped his case. Suso went on to score six goals in 19 games while also scoring a hat-trick against Frosinone. This made him only the second Spaniard ever to score a hat-trick in the Italian top flight and the first in 53 years.

Also read: The resurgence of AC Milan

Suso became a key figure at Milan in 2016-17 starting 34 games while scoring seven and assisting 10. His assist in the Supercoppa Italiana 2016 against Juventus took the game to penalties where he converted his kick and helped Milan win.

His rapid rise in the last year has resulted in several transfer rumours with the most notable one linking him to Liverpool’s Premier League rivals Tottenham Hotspur. Mauricio Pochettino is famed for his ability to develop players and Suso could prove to be a wise acquisition.

The saddest part? Liverpool sold Suso for only €1.3m!

Edited by Amit Mishra