We knew why Liverpool transfers were going wrong - but we couldn't tell the full story to the world

Liverpool’s lack of incoming business so far this summer might have caused frustration in some parts, but it’s not through lack of trying. Had things worked out differently, both Anthony Gordon and Martin Zubimendi could have found themselves both making their Reds debuts at Ipswich Town Saturday.

It remains to be seen if Liverpool will add to their squad before the transfer window closes on August 30, though new head coach Arne Slot has previously admitted that he expects new recruits to arrive - though such an admission came before Zubimendi rejected a switch to Anfield.

Virgil van Dijk, meanwhile, recently urged the club to strengthen their ranks this summer.

The Reds’ summer recruitment might not have proven to be straightforward, but they are still in a much healthier position than a decade ago.

When bemoaning a lack of new additions now, it is perhaps easy to forget just how hit and miss Liverpool’s transfer business proved to be in the early years of the Fenway Sports Group era.

Prior to Jurgen Klopp’s arrival in October 2015 and the Reds’ subsequent transformation from mid-table mediocrity to Premier League and Champions League contenders, the infamous transfer committee was regularly mocked for the club’s dealings as a number of big-money signings backfired.

Andy Carroll, Stewart Downing, Mario Balloteli, Lazar Markovic and Christian Benteke were some of the more questionable arrivals, with inconsistencies in recruitment felt to stem from disagreements behind the scenes.

Dr. Ian Graham, Liverpool’s former director of research, has now confirmed that the club’s recruitment team often clashed with former manager Brendan Rodgers when it came to deciding on transfer targets - with Benteke proving to be a regular source of debate.

“We understood the reasons why things were going wrong, but couldn't really tell the story to the wider world,” Graham revealed in an exclusive interview with the ECHO ahead of the release of his new book, 'How to Win the Premier League: The Inside Story of Football’s Data Revolution’.

“In Brendan's defence, he's not a bad manager. He's a very good manager. I think the problem was there's definitely a lack of trust there in terms of the players that we were recommending were not the same sort of players that Brendan liked.

“So Benteke is an example of a player who's a very good player in the right system for him. But Liverpool didn't play that right system for Benteke to prosper and succeed. And so it took a long time to agree on a player.

“So Brendan's choice number one would be a player that for whatever reason we'd say is not a good idea to bring. And then we'd bring our first choices to the table. And Brendan would not want those players to come to the club for whatever reason.

“We were kind of untested at the time as well. Our processes didn't change too much when Jurgen arrived. But we were all much younger and the other members of the transfer committee were much younger and more inexperienced and didn't have a track record.

“And so I kind of understand the lack of trust in that process from Brendan. The problem was, FSG had put in place this idea of a group decision, with the idea being the wisdom of the crowds.

“If I've got a blind spot when it comes to another particular player, there's always some checks and balances to say, well, hang on, you haven't considered, you know, the finances are wrong for this player or the style of play is wrong for this player.

“The idea was to have this collaboration between manager and, well, it wasn't sporting director, but Michael (Edwards) was technical director at the time. And to take inputs from scouting and data and together we'll come to a better decision than any of us alone would come to.

“But it just didn't work. And I think there was a lack of trust which I understand. We didn't have a track record at the time, but also the sort of player that Brendan valued was not the same sort of player that we valued.

“The players Brendan thought would improve the team were just not the same as the players we thought would improve the team.”

He continued: “I completely understand Brendan's desire to buy Benteke. He destroyed us time and time again when he played for Aston Villa, he was absolutely unplayable.

“Brendan had us change formation at half-time in one game, because he'd scored one or two already and looked like he was going to score even more in the second half. That was not a great Aston Villa side either.

“When you've got a player that's just destroying you, not just once or twice, but time and time again, I can absolutely understand the emotional impact that makes and how brilliant that player looks.

“But the fact was we did not play a style of football that was suited to a target man, which is what Benteke is. And so Benteke is a great player in the right system. But this wasn't the right system.

“And that argument had been going on for many years. Brendan finally got his man. (Roberto) Firmino was our reward for Brendan getting his man.”

The aforementioned flaws in such a committee ultimately led to Mario Balotelli’s arrival from AC Milan in the summer of 2014 in a £16m deal as Liverpool desperately searched for a replacement for Luis Suarez.

Graham admits the Italian was way down the Reds’ wishlist, but defends Liverpool’s decision to sign him.

“It was the flaw in the committee-based approach,” he said. “I think it's not really a flaw in the approach. It was just a flaw in the group dynamics really.

“So the idea was we had to have some sort of agreement on the players that would arrive. So with (Daniel) Sturridge and (Philippe) Coutinho, for example, there was agreement on those players. We thought they were really good. Brendan thought they were really good. They were successful.

“I think there's probably a couple of other players in that category. But what happened more often was there was Brendan's first choice to come to the club would be a player that we thought was the wrong style of player, or the finances didn't work, or we didn't think they'd make a big enough impact on the first 11.

“We ended up quite often, not signing our first choice player, which was (Alexis) Sanchez in that season, but not signing our second and third choice player, because there was this difference of opinion between what we thought was a relevant player to improve Liverpool.

“So Balotelli was probably choice number six or number seven. The other thing is, as the transfer window proceeds, more and more strikers get signed by other clubs. And so when you're in late August, there's a limited number of players remaining.

“From a data point of view, Balotelli looked like a super player. So I was really excited to sign Balotelli. He was only 24. He'd played for huge clubs and made a difference to huge clubs on the pitch.

“If we got the best version of Balotelli on the pitch, then the price we paid for him would be an absolute bargain. And, Brendan met him before the season. The meeting went really well. I was optimistic about the signing.

“You can look at the performance on the pitch, Balotelli was pretty unlucky not to score more than he did in that season. On the pitch, he was okay. He wasn't particularly bad for Liverpool.

“The failure was that he didn't get on the pitch. So, for whatever reason, he was never first choice as a striker. Brendan didn't really trust him.

“He didn't really behave badly in any way at Liverpool. He was just never first choice. And again, if the process is working properly, Balotelli wouldn't have arrived at the club.”

Liverpool missed out on a number of players during this period, with Graham bemoaning the club’s failure to sign both Alexis Sanchez and Diego Costa.

However, he reveals Sadio Mane and Joel Matip were also both targets for the Reds years before their eventual Anfield arrivals, only to not get approval from the overall transfer committee.

“I remember Michael saying to me once about Mike Gordon at Fenway. He said, ‘Mike sees this football in the same way that I see football’,” he said. “And when Jurgen arrived, he saw football in the same way that Michael, Mike and I saw football as well, and there was just a much more natural alignment.

“So talk about that first transfer window of players we previously kind of discounted that looked good in the data. So Joel Matip, Sadio Mane, you know players who had been on our radar but didn't really make it very far through that committee-based process.

“And so from a data point of view, to have the manager (Klopp) suggesting these names, I was delighted because, you know, in the past it was just always a clash between us."

“I talk in the book about Alexis Sanchez being one of our top priorities to replace Luis Suarez back in 2014,” Graham continued. “And we were on the other side of the super manager story there, when you have the legend that is Arsene Wenger come to meet you in person and say, you know, you're going to be the main man at Arsenal.

“Well, of course that's going to be a huge attraction to a player in the same way that Jurgen saying, ‘You’re the player I want’, is a huge attraction.

“Sanchez is great one (example of a player he was gutted to miss out on). Going back to earlier years at Liverpool, I think every season when Brendan was manager, Benteke scored against Liverpool or played brilliantly against them at least.

“So in 2013, there was a chance of signing Diego Costa. We were younger and a little bit more naive at the time, so there were various reasons why the Costa signing fell through.

“But can you imagine a Liverpool front pairing of Luis Suarez and Diego Costa. The world would not know what was hitting them!”

Of course, Liverpool would still miss out on players following Klopp’s arrival, and have done again this summer as demonstrated by Zubimendi’s decision to reject the Reds.

But there remains an air of mystery about Liverpool’s failure to sign Nabil Fekir in the summer of 2018 as a potential replacement to Philippe Coutinho, with contrasting reasons for the transfer’s collapse being given in the years that have followed.

While cagey on the reasoning behind Frenchman’s cancelled transfer, Graham concedes Liverpool were in the process of rebalancing their squad and alludes to an alleged failed medical.

“I don't want to say too much in detail about that particular transfer,” he admitted. “He (Fekir) was a transfer target for us.

“He was a great, great player with a similar profile to Coutinho. So if we were in the market for a Coutinho replacement, I was excited about his signing.

“I think at the same time, this conversation about rebalancing the squad was going on, and, yeah, we already had a 99th percentile attack even without Coutinho in it. But we didn't have a 99th percentile defence.

“One thing to say with injuries in general is there were several cases of players that failed medicals at Liverpool who then went on to transfer to other clubs. So we were as diligent or more diligent than other clubs when it came to medicals.

“It's due to that insistence that we're happy to spend money, but that money's got to play on the pitch. Why buy a player to sit on the bench is what it comes down to.”

Ian Graham's 'How to Win the Premier League: The Inside Story of Football’s Data Revolution, published by Century, Penguin Random House, is on sale now.