Damien Comolli

[StevieH]

I wouldn't want Liverpool to pay any of the prices that Spurs paid for them players.

 

I don't rate Ekotto either.

 

Agreed. John W Henry has admitted that he admires the Arsenal model, but Spurs appear to have paid over the odds for players that Comolli has recommended.

[PaulMcC]

I really hope he isn't allowed to change anything at the Acadmey either.

 

It looks to be running very well.

[Trucker Paddy]

I wouldn't want Liverpool to pay any of the prices that Spurs paid for them players.

 

I don't rate Ekotto either.

 

Some inflated prices true, also got inflated prices what he got for Berbatov and Keane, but 2006-2008 the market was inflated IMO, suppose we'll see how Commolli works, but I do think its a system worth looking at providing coaching and tactics still stays as a managers decision, 1998 all over again nightmare,I'm sure we'll all see soon enough, decent article below

 

What will Damien Comolli do for Liverpool? – Telegraph Blogs

[Wor Horse]

Where's Taraabt these days?

 

Johnson is far better than Corluka.

 

QPR. He's a real talent.

 

Would that be Johnson who cost 18 million and can't defend?

[StevieH]

What will Damien Comolli do for Liverpool? – Telegraph Blogs

 

Gareth Bale and Luka Modric turn in world class performances to soundly beat the European Champions; Damien Comolli is appointed Director of Football Strategy at Liverpool. Everything is connected. Comolli brought Bale and Modric to Spurs and there is no doubt that his legacy has been reassessed since he departed under a cloud two years ago.

That he has been employed by Liverpool is no surprise. This has been a club crying out for long-term direction. Roy Hodgson’s job remains to get them as high up the league as possible come May; Comolli’s is to ensure the club is competing with the very best in 2015. Comolli is friends with Billy Beane, the baseball maverick who used a radical stats driven approach to achieve great success with the Oakland A’s, dramatised in the book Moneyball (being made into a film with Brad Pitt).

John W. Henry, Liverpools’ new owner, tried to hire Beane when he took over the Red Sox and is an admirer of his methods. Henry is also an admirer of Arsene Wenger, having visited Arsenal before he bought Liverpool, who employed Comolli as his European scout between 1996 and 2003. It is an appointment that makes sense. This is the piece I wrote on Sunday about how Liverpool will use metrics under NESV which includes some of Comolli’s thoughts on the subject. So how will Comolli work at Liverpool?

Signings

When Comolli left Spurs in October 2008, along with Juande Ramos, his transfer record was heavily criticised. Harry Redknapp said he had inherited a “mish-mash” of players that did not form a cohesive squad. On Tuesday night, though, five players who started against Inter were signed under Comolli’s watch and a sixth, Heurlho Gomes, would have started if not for injuries. He got several wrong – Hossam Ghaly, Ricardo Rocha and especially Gilberto – but many players who were slated have come good, like Gomes, Benoit Assou-Ekotto, Younes Kaboul, Roman Pavlyuchenko and Kevin-Prince Boateng (now at Milan). Nothing has been confirmed but I imagine Liverpool will set up a football board, like they have at Chelsea, in which key decisions can be made. Comolli and his team will identify players using a reliable scouting unit (he was shocked by how few Spurs had on his arrival) and bring the best statistical analysis that football currently has to offer. That will allow the manager to focus on coaching the first team. In the long term, he will help identify a young coach who can build a dynasty at the club.

Contracts

Liverpool pay a huge £120million in wages yet do not have the squad to reflect that. Many older players are on excessively generous deals. Don’t expect the club to offer players over the age of 28 huge contracts like they did last summer. As it has been at Spurs, the focus will be on value (look at how much they made on the Dimitar Berbatov deal), development and, to an extent, on tapping into markets that have previously been overlooked.

Training Ground

Comolli helped design Tottenham’s new training ground at Bulls Cross which will be among the very best in Europe. Prompted by Gerard Houllier Melwood had a redevelopment in 2001 but if Liverpool are truly to compete with their rivals they will need a state-of-the-art facility, like Chelsea have at Cobham, Arsenal have at London Colney and Manchester United have at Carrington.

Academy

Liverpool’s academy has been slowly moving in the right direction and Frank McParland, Jose Segura and Rodolfo Borrell are good operators. What they will get from Comolli is the large-scale strategic vision, an encyclodpedic knowledge of talent all over the world and a commitment to high level scouting. Working with the coach/manager, there will also be a more cohesive approach to getting academy talent into the first team. At Spurs he attracted some very promising players to the club in the face of intense competition (Chelsea wanted Danny Rose, Barcelona wanted John Bostock). Merseyside is incredibly fertile territory for players – look around the Premier League and see how many come from Liverpool – and there is no excuse for Liverpool’s academy not to be producing elite players.

[shaunstrudwick]

i smell a Klinsmann.....

[PaulMcC]

Some inflated prices true, also in what he got for Berbatov and Keane, but 2006-2008 the market was inflated IMO, suppose we'll see how Commolli works, but I do think its a system worth looking at providing coaching and tactics still stays as a managers decision, 1998 all over again nightmare,I'm sure we'll all see soon enough, decent article below

 

What will Damien Comolli do for Liverpool? – Telegraph Blogs

 

I'm not sure how you can sack a manager unless he's the one who has final say on all signings.

 

If he's getting bought players who just don't have the attributes he's looking for a certain role, it's not gonna work.

[shaunstrudwick]

director of football has final say on signings

 

the 'manager' is just for coaching the team

[Trucker Paddy]

I'm not sure how you can sack a manager unless he's the one who has final say on all signings.If he's getting bought players who just don't have the attributes he's looking for a certain role, it's not gonna work.

 

I see what your saying but it seems to work on the continent, Rafa wont be signing players at Inter for example, which is Ironic given the battles he had for control of transfers here, without getting into the whole shit again, I've no doubt he'd have refused this system if he was still here, when he arrived maybe but from 2007 onwards no chance.

[PaulMcC]

I see what your saying but it seems to work on the continent, Rafa wont be signing players at Inter for example, which is Ironic given the battles he had for control of transfers here, without getting into the whole shit again, I've no doubt he'd have refused this system if he was still here, when he arrived maybe but from 2007 onwards no chance.

 

I think he might've accepted it if it was someone he trusts.

 

Just hope we don't miss out on good managers cos they don't want someone else signing players for them.

[Chinandeler Bong]

Cant say I know much about this Damian fella.

We shall see I suppose. But just to clarify , is he now our Director of Football ?

and then Buying players, regardless of Hodgson's opinion , and saying ' here you go Roy, get him playing ' ?

 

Thats something we have never had is'nt it ?

 

Mmmmmm.

I suppose he knows his football though and It'll be nice to have someone else in the club like that.

 

As for the Arsenal model , which StevieH referred to earlier ?

May be he is going for the model of arsenal but not the overpriced fee's of spurs mate.

Mixing it up, he would of learned from those experiences and hopefully be more knowledgeable and not so naive as he was back then ?

[Trucker Paddy]

I think he might've accepted it if it was someone he trusts.Just hope we don't miss out on good managers cos they don't want someone else signing players for them.

 

Not a chance Paul, not a chance

Regarding attracting managers its most likely we'll go for a European manager so its the Norm

[Jonny83]

To be honest I'd only heard of Comolli from his Spurs tenure and my reactions thus far to his appointment have been based solely on that. What exactly was his role at Arsenal? I can't see Arsene Wenger being overruled by anyone, so was it more of an advisory/scouting role, with Wenger getting final say? If so I'd hope that's more the situation here.

[Red Nick]

You keep saying that over and over and over and over and over and over again. What are you basing it on? What exactly is it you know that I and probably many others don't?

 

[PaulMcC]

To be honest I'd only heard of Comolli from his Spurs tenure and my reactions thus far to his appointment have been based solely on that. What exactly was his role at Arsenal? I can't see Arsene Wenger being overruled by anyone, so was it more of an advisory/scouting role, with Wenger getting final say? If so I'd hope that's more the situation here.

 

European scout, apparently.

 

I'm sure Wenger got final say.

[Red Nick]

Why not just hire a good manager who can do both?

 

I despise the thought of someone buying players for Liverpool and passing them down to the manager.

 

Because it hasnt worked and its a safety net when the manager starts to lose it as Houllier and Rafa did.

 

This will only work if both the DOF and the manager have the same views about football and when these players are signed they get a chance to break through which hasnt been the case since Houllier promoted Gerrard.

 

This is why I think Roys days are numbered because when push comes to shove Roy will always choose the safe option rather than the bold one of dropping Carra for Kelly as an example, No point signing Talent if id doesnt get a chance in the team.

[Red Nick]

That has been a big part of our problem off the field for years to be fair. We are this and we wont change. We need to change, big time.

 

I think having someone above the manager working with them to bring in the right players and maybe challenging them on decisions on players, epsecially if you look at some of our signings over the past 12 years, and considering Roy brought in 3 shite players out of 4 and he thought Van Der Vaart was not of the profile we are looking for, it makes sense.

 

Yes managers should live and die by their decisions, however the nature of the game is now about results, and the manager needs all the time he gets to focus on getting the results that will beneift the team long term.

 

Both Camolli and Roy or whoever is the manager in the future if it is not to be Roy (which I would like, but accept it may be longer than I wish for) they need to work together to identify targets that will fit into the team and future of this club.

 

I hope there is no big upheavel of the Academy, as I feel that it is in a better position now than it was say 3 years ago, some good and upcoming youngsters coming through who I believe are good enough to make the grade. Plus the Academy has taken the biggest brunt of everything over teh past feew years too, and it needs to have a long period of sustained development.

 

The Damien Rafa conversation over changing Barry for Alonso could have been quite interesting

[Trumo]

The Damien Rafa conversation over changing Barry for Alonso could have been quite interesting

 

Except Rafa wanted Barry in the team alongside Alonso.

[TheHowieLama]

I would say only Bentley has proven to be an absolute waster in the top echelon of signings. He had a few questionable in the 5-10 m range but that is the riskiest pool to swim in.

I wonder if he might have learned them a thing or two as since he left they have done some very good business.

[Red Nick]

Except Rafa wanted Barry in the team alongside Alonso.

 

Your avatat is correct, complete and utter bollocks

[kop]

 

I am not good at star wars references or whatever that is, so I am not sure what you mean.

[Trumo]

One factor to consider for the player (besides a lucrative contract) is how easy it would be for them to settle. It's understandable that players from abroad may find London more to their liking because they won't really be too far from their home comforts. You can go overboard and not integrate a la Reyes, who lived with his family and hung around with London's Andalucian communities, thus never adapted to British life.

 

Spurs' advantage over Liverpool when signing some of these players was that there was a greater chance of first team football at Spurs, less pressure, as well as the London factor for settling in. Although Liverpool does have some cosmopolitan-ness, it's still very much a Scouse identity so some players might struggle to adapt. Struggling to settle and not being able to deal with the heightened expectations at Anfield could break a player.

 

Also in London there's a LOT more to fill your spare time with.

 

The other thing to consider is that Spurs had much better negotiators than Liverpool during Comolli's time. Our lot sold the family silver once, after not doing their homework.

[Trumo]

Your avatat is correct, complete and utter bollocks

 

Negged for slagging off my avatar, and for missing the point spectacularly (was it ever thus?).

[KirkdaleRick]

ha i'm no longer worried about Uncle Roy wasting our transfer kitty on Bobby zamora. Now go get is LLorente , Damien you sleek looking french bastard you.

[Red Nick]

I am not good at star wars references or whatever that is, so I am not sure what you mean.

 

It wouldnt be very logical to get in A DOF to spot an sign all the best players only to give them to a manager who prefers to play experience over potential. Ideally he would want a manager who shared his views on football like he had at Arsenal. At Spurs the youngsters singed because they knew they would get a chance.

 

So its perfectly logical to find a young manager who will build LFC a dynasty and shares the same views as the DOF. For me that has to be Di Matteo or Deschamps and Damien obviously has a lot closer acces do Didier than Roberto.