Liverpool finally sell their worst player

Chris Wright

8th, January 2010

30 Comments

PA-6271570

I really am so truly, truly sorry

You can almost hear the collective sigh of relief emanating from Merseyside as the news filters through that Andrea Dossena will finally sign for Napoli in a £4.5 million, four and a half year deal after the final details are hammered out later today.

The Italian full-back signed for Liverpool from Udinese for £7 million nearly 18 months ago and has, to put it politely, not had the best time of it. He may yet prove to go down in club folklore though, for scoring the final goals in Liverpool’s famous maulings of Real Madrid and Manchester United last year.

It is more likely, however, that Dossena will be remember by most fans as a player who just wasn’t suited (read: good enough) to play in a Premier League team that had aspirations of competing for the title, and a shining example of why Rafa Benitez shouldn’t be trusted with a transfer budget of any note. He seemed out of sorts physically and never truly comfortable with the pace of the English game. As a result he had his role reduced to that of a bit-part player with only five appearances in all competitions this season.

I’m amazed that Liverpool have been able to recoup as much as they have through the resale of Dossena but the fact that a host of Serie A clubs have been linked with the 28 year old during his torrid stint in England shows that his stock hasn’t dropped that significantly in his homeland. Dossena is accustomed to the slower nature of the game in Italy and it wouldn’t surprise me if he recovers his form and starts building a decent reputation for himself again.

Do the Liverpool fans out there think you’ve got yourselves a good deal here (in managing to get £4.5 million for a resounding flop)? Or is the net loss too much to bear considering the minimal impact Dossena made at the club?

Posted in Liverpool, Man Utd, Real Madrid, Serie A, Transfers & Rumours

Share this article: Email

30 Comments

  1. Colin Mallia says:

    Is Torres another “shining example of why Rafa Benitez shouldn’t be trusted with a transfer budget of any note” ???

  2. MG says:

    looked to be a player with good ability who just couldnt cut it in this league. maybe youre right about the slower pace of serie a suiting him – though very harsh about comment not trusting rafa with a transfer budget though i dont want to get into to the ins and outs of that! will always be a cult hero for his 4th vs united at old trafford. good luck dossena!

  3. Dan says:

    “Liverpool finally sell their worst player”

    But Voronin is still there….

  4. Tom says:

    You’re not far off, even though he did stump up the cash for Torres, there’s also Voronin, Babel, Lucas etc and he paid £17m for a right back!! Aquilani is a huge gamble as well. But he’s not yet in the class of Houllier for random shit buys

  5. Chringle says:

    @Collin Mallia

    The man has slowly but surely weakened the Liverpool squad during the time he’s been there. It is undeniable that he has made a one great and a few decent signings (Torres, Benayoun, Hamann) but his record of signing mediocre players for ‘over the odds’ fees is there for all to see (Diao, Cheyrou, Josemi, Kromkamp, Nunez, Pellegrino, Morientes, Gonzalez, Paletta, Lucas, Kyrgiakos, Voronin, Kuyt, Babel, Aurelio, Insua, Pennant, Plessis, Degen, El Zhar, N’gog, Itanje, Leto, Sissoko, Dossena etc…).

  6. isa says:

    VORONIN IS OUR WORST PLAYER NOT DOSSENA xD DOSSENA WAS BETTER HE SCORED MORE THAN HIM………

  7. stuart says:

    Veronin is liverpool worst player.

  8. Neil says:

    @Chringle:

    Hamann, Diao and Cheyrou were all signed by Gerard Houllier (one of his best and two of his worst). Oh, and Degen and Voronin were free transfers.

  9. K says:

    He didn’t sign Hamann but he did sign Roby Keane.

    Benitez has only signed 3 or 4 good players in 6 years. He’s wasted more money than most teams have to start with, over £170m. He’s brought in over 50 players and most of them have been sold on at a loss.

    http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/gallery/2009/may/20/liverpool-transfers

  10. r says:

    Lucas?? Will you narrow minded ignorant fans get off the press bandwagon….open your eyes…and realise that Lucas is actually our most consistent player this season, bar non!!! He has stood head and shoulders above the rest of the team in his performances. He takes the flack because there are too many fans who are unwilling to criticise Gerrard for his poor form this season and other certain individuals in the squad.

    He always gives 100% and you never hear him moaning. He just gets on with his own game and plays his heart out. Considering all the criticism he’s received from some fans you would be expecting a transfer request or some kind of “twitter” outburst….oh yeah, we’ve got Ryan Babel for that!

    From a True Liverpool Fan – who SUPPORTS the team, rather than criticize them at every chance they can when we’re going through a bad patch. What the team, the squad, the manager and the club needs is confidence and support. And we as fans have a responsibility to assist them in attaining this. Its about time we got together and backed the team to succeed and supported them through this poor run we are having at the moment.

    YNWA!!!

  11. Colin Mallia says:

    @ Chringle

    Diao, Cheyrou, were bought by Houllier, most of the other players you mention were sold on at a profit or a very minor loss, others still form part of the current team and aren’t that bad (Aurelio, Insua, Kuyt,El Zhar, N’gog). Also some of these players were also brought on a free transfer. I will mention one Man Utd player….VERON…he was bought for over 20mil sterling and was a total flop and sold at a great loss. …Berbatov to some extent is following in his footsteps. Point….every manager makes mistakes when signing players.

  12. Dave says:

    @ Chringle

    At least get your facts right Chringle…”one great and a few decent signings..” – Hamann was not brought in by Rafa and your list of mediocre players lists Diao and Cheyrou (both Houllier aquisitions).

    Insua, Plessis, N’Gog and maybe even El Zhar are still waiting to break through to the first team but have all shown signs of promise and all cost minimal amounts (N’Gog £1.5m and straight into the first team where he has scored a few important goals for us this season).
    And this section refers to Rafa signing mediocre players for over the odds fees but your list is made up of mostly players were either free(Voronin, Degen & Aurelio) part of a swap deal (Josemi/Kromkamp, Paletta/Insua & Nunez) or at a cost which still seems reasonable for most of them (apart from Dossena clearly)!

    You also list Leto who never had a chance to show what he was capable of due to a work permit balls up.

    You then manage to forget the other great buys Rafa has made including Alonso, Reina, Agger, Skrtel, Mascherano & Johnson not to mention the ranks of quality in the reserves and academy such as Pacheco, Nemeth, Kelly, Ayala, Derby, Buchtman, Duran, Ince, Dalla Valle etc etc.

  13. Sean says:

    @ r

    well said man,wish more people would support Lucas

  14. Sean Alexander says:

    Why people knocking Voronin so bad, ok i think we can all agree he’s not a fan fave and its not worked out but to say he’s our worst player and to butcher his ability is unfair. He does well in the German league and despite his youth i would rather have a voronin at 30 than an Ngog at 21

  15. trader says:

    Voronin is our worst player, he is awful. @ Sean Alexander, Ngog is 100 times the player Voronin is, at least when he goes one on one with the keeper you know he might score, whereas you know Voronin will miss. That miss away at Lyon was the final straw for Rafa, ball sits up nicely in front of the whole goal and Voronin rolls it to the keeper. I only play Sunday League and I can finish better than that.

  16. Philando Torres says:

    Dossena lobbed Van Der Sar at Old Toilet and put the fourth past Casillas. Plus, he never lacked effort, just quality.

    VORONIN, however, is on his way to Moscow for 2 mil. Which is a profit of 2 mil on one of the shittest, laziest and most apathetic players of recent times. Any chance of praising Rafa for such an outrageous achievement of making a profit on that no-mark?

    Come on Ollie, you know you want to.

  17. Adam says:

    You can’t use Torres as an example of good transfer dealings, every manager in the world knew about him when they bought him, 23m is a price a few clubs could afford but in the same way that Aguero is now, they probably had to do a hell of a lot to convince Atletico that then was the right time to sell. Yeh that list though is disgusting.

    Josemi, Kromkamp, Nunez, Pellegrino, Morientes, Gonzalez, Paletta, Lucas, Kyrgiakos, Voronin, Kuyt, Babel, Aurelio, Insua, Pennant, Plessis, Degen, El Zhar, N’gog, Itanje, Leto, Sissoko, Dossena etc

  18. Voland says:

    Every manager makes mistakes and admittedly Benitez is no Wenger in terms of finding gems for peanuts. Unlike Wenger (and perhaps like Ferguson) Rafa is prepared to take calculated risks, which on occasion pay out big (e.g. Torres and Alonso). I would also argue that his overall track record on the transfer front has been very good, with the incremental value of the Liverpool squad increasing significantly more than his net spend in the four years that he has been in charge.

  19. RedDevil says:

    So I suppose voronin didn’t get paid any wages for doing nothing then. I prasie rafa the fat Spanish waiter benitez for making it easier to make fun of u dippers, long live rafa!!!

  20. DADADA says:

    VORONIN came from the same club as BERBATOV if only Rafa had opened

    INSUA is crap absolutly useless

  21. adrian says:

    thanks mr.dossena …………….. for nothing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    any way i really don’t blame mr.dossena for his qualities, the problem is the person who bought him, and all the average players for large sums of money. another example is aquilani, again an average player who barely played 10 matches in the past two season = 20 million !!!!!!!!!!!!!! and the list goes on babel, voronin, degen, riera, aurelio, ngog, lucas, kyrgiakos etc….

    another fact is that italians and brazilians can be world champions but are not good for english football, so please stop wasting our money.

    also the english teams must have at least 6 players on the field who are english and the FA must act as soon as possibile. we’re fed up of seeing average, mediocre, foreign mercenaries ruining the most beautifull football in the world, ENGLISH FOOTBALL.

  22. Dude2076 says:

    not the worst player at liverpool at least he scored against the scum and madrid.

    sadly the crown still belongs to pukas/mukas

  23. M. says:

    diego cavalieri is the worst. and I’m even a Palmeiras fan. short armed keepers are crap.

  24. Aidan says:

    Lets not forget Kyrgiakos, he is some sort of terrible

  25. david howse says:

    thats why we are so rubbish this season.lucas is our most consistent player.he wouldnt get into man utd reserves.cant score to save his life.not fit to lace alonsos boots.also i must mention carragher is now out of his depth.far too slow.and tonight against reading too often trying to pick a long pass out to forwards,just giving the ball away.we havent got a creative midfielder.lucas gets a headache if he gets near the penalty box.it worked last season playing gerrard forward.due to lucas being a pansy,gerrard needs to come back in midfield.aand to finish sell torres for £70 million and get 2 top stikers for the price of one

  26. Voronin + Dossena = Rubbish says:

    Voronin was the worst, definitely

    Here’s one for the laffs:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6l7bA6DC1Sk

  27. The Truth!! says:

    Ryan Crap-bel is their worst player, closely followed by that big ugly uselles goatshagger Kyrgiakos

  28. paul says:

    greek 1 sideshow bob 0

  29. Mr. Angry says:

    @chringle

    you dickhead! benitez did not sign hamman, get your facts right you prick!

  30. Mr. Angry says:

    what are you all saying that dossena is shit!? you must be joking! he barely ever got a chance for 2 seasons that he was at anfield… and the very rare times that he’s played (7) that is, he scored twice (against MAN UNITED and REAL MADRID) and he’s a fuckin leftback dont forget! any striker would be happy to score 2 goals n 7 appearances (unless its the great fernanado torres) voronin is the worst player in the world.. never mind liverpool!

Leave a Reply to paul