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.