Liverpool sacked me over Henderson – Comolli

Damien Comolli claimed he was ditched as Liverpool’s director of football due to the signing of current club captain Jordan Henderson.

Henderson joined Liverpool from Sunderland in 2011 in a reported £16million deal after blossoming into one of the league’s most sought-after young players, however, he made an unimpressive start to life at Anfield initially and found himself in and out of the team.

But Henderson went on to become Steven Gerrard’s successor as captain and he also skippered England in Wayne Rooney’s absence on Tuesday.

Comolli, however, believes Henderson’s initial struggles were the reason he was sacked in April 2012.

“[Henderson] is one of the main reasons I got sacked,” he told talkSPORT. “The day I got sacked, [Liverpool’s owners] told me I had made a big mistake on Jordan and he was a waste of money.

“Everybody is entitled to their own opinion, but I think we paid the right price. He was a young English, British player and we know very often that British players are overvalued.

“But we were more than happy to pay the price because we thought he would become an outstanding player. I never said it publicly, but I was convinced he would be the future captain.

“People will say it is easy to say now, but I was convinced at the time that he would become the Liverpool captain. Now he is, and he is also the England captain.

“I was totally convinced, as was Kenny [Dalglish, Liverpool manager at the time], that we were doing the right thing for the club.

“He fitted the profile we were looking for. We knew he was an outstanding person, we knew he had leadership skills, we knew he was totally dedicated to football, to his passion, and we knew he was someone who wanted to improve on a day to day basis. We knew his physical abilities – his fitness stats were absolutely unbelievable.

“We were looking at statistics and we were going through a lot of midfield players in the Premier League and what amazed me and caught my eye was his ability to create quality chances.

“For a player who was so young, playing not in a top side, with all due respect to Sunderland, he was producing and creating more quality chances, or least as much, as top-quality players in the Premier League.”