Dr. Ian Graham, Liverpool’s former director of research, has lifted the lid on the story
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Liverpool's head coach Brendan Rodgers (L) reacts as Liverpool's forward Rickie Lambert looks on during a press conference on November 25, 2014 in Sofia, on the eve of the Champions League group B football match between FC Ludogorets and FC Liverpool. AFP PHOTO / NIKOLAY DOYCHINOV (Photo credit should read NIKOLAY DOYCHINOV/AFP via Getty Images)
Brendan Rodgers (L) reacts as Liverpool's forward Rickie Lambert looks on during a press conference on November 25, 2014 in Sofia, on the eve of the Champions League group B match at FC Ludogorets
(Image: NIKOLAY DOYCHINOV/AFP via Getty Images)
Liverpool used to be regular shoppers at Southampton, with the Reds often mocked for how often they turned to their ‘feeder club’ during the transfer window. In the space of three and a half years, between the summer of 2014 and January 2018, the Saints pocketed £171m from their Merseyside counterparts.
Liverpool signed Rickie Lambert, Adam Lallana, Dejan Lovren, Nathaniel Clyne, Sadio Mane, and club-record signing Virgil van Dijk during such a period. Going further back to include Peter Crouch’s £7m switch in 2005 and such a total reaches £178m.
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Admittedly, Van Dijk and Mane belatedly silenced the ridicule, with the pair both becoming Reds legends as they made an instant impact at Anfield.
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But after parting with a combined £49m to sign Lambert, Lallana and Lovren in the summer of 2014, with Liverpool going on to endure a dreadful campaign under Brendan Rodgers, it was no surprise that such dealings were initially laughed at.
Lallana and Lovren at least made their presence felt after slow starts, as they ended up departing Anfield as English, European and world champions. Aged 26 and 25 at the time of their arrivals, they also fit the club’s favoured transfer model.
But a 32-year-old Lambert was a puzzling transfer, which faced even further scrutiny following the departure of Luis Suarez to Barcelona in a £65m deal and Liverpool’s failure to sign a world class replacement.
The England international was brought in for just £4m and, as a boyhood Reds supporter previously released by the club at academy level, his return was certainly feel-good. Yet Lambert’s time with the club did not work out and, after just scoring just three goals from 36 seasons and making only 12 starts, he was offloaded to West Bromwich Albion after just one season.
In hindsight, it is a puzzling transfer and one that you could never envisage Liverpool finalising under Jurgen Klopp or Arne Slot.
But there was a method in the Reds’ madness at the time, even if it was somewhat flawed. With Rodgers desperate to sign Christian Benteke and Liverpool’s recruitment team adamant he would not suit their style of play, a compromise was reached to move for Lambert instead as a low-budget alternative and experiment in lieu of a potential future swoop for Aston Villa’s Belgian striker.
“We looked at many other forwards that summer, but the necessity of compromise between the different members of the transfer committee made it difficult to agree on any player,” Dr. Ian Graham, Liverpool’s former director of research, explained in his book, ‘How to Win the Premier League: The Inside Story of Football's Data Revolution. “Brendan was still a big fan of Christian Benteke but data analysis did not agree that he was suitable for Liverpool’s style of play.
“Everyone agreed that Andy Carroll was not right for Brendan’s style, and Benteke was a ‘target man’ in a similar mould. Eddy’s (Michael Edwards) idea was to sign a target man for a much smaller fee, as an experiment to see whether that type of player could succeed in Brendan’s system.
“Rickie Lambert, then 32, had a couple of successful seasons for Southampton and bore some resemblance in style to Benteke. For £4million we would find out if a target man could prosper at Liverpool without risking a huge fee on Benteke.”
Ultimately, Lambert failed at Anfield. But that did not put off Rodgers from wanting to sign Benteke. In the end he got his man in a £32m deal in the summer of 2015 but like his predecessor, he too would be offloaded after just one disappointing campaign at Anfield.
Having compromised on Lambert, Liverpool’s recruitment were willing to do so again in 2015 as they pushed to look in an unexpected place, presenting then-Everton striker Romelu Lukaku as an alternative. Unsurprisingly, such a switch never materialized.
“Despite the failed experiment with Rickie Lambert, Brendan’s number one target for the summer 2015 transfer window was Christian Benteke,” Graham recalled. “His obsession with Benteke made Captain Ahab’s fascination with Moby Dick look like a passing fancy...
“In 2014, Benteke had been Brendan’s preferred replacement for Suarez. And in 2015, despite the failed Rickie Lambert experiment, Benteke was yet again top of the list.
“By 2015 I preferred the idea of Lukaku from Everton. Another ‘hybrid’ striker, he could play the target man role of Benteke, but had other strengths that would fit much better with Liverpool’s style of play.
“The plan didn’t really get off the ground. Our CEO Ian Ayre was given the unenviable task of ‘crossing the park’ (Stanley Park) to ask Everton if they’d sell, and was told in no uncertain terms that they would never sell a player to Liverpool.
“In any case, it didn’t matter: Brendan’s opinion was that if he was offered the choice between Lukaku and Benteke, he would choose Benteke a thousand times out of a thousand.”
While Rodgers ultimately got his man in Benteke, Liverpool also brought in Roberto Firmino from Hoffenheim in a £29m deal to soothe a frustrated recruitment side.
The Brazilian ultimately became a club legend following Jurgen Klopp’s arrival as manager, as the Reds’ latest target man signing did not work out and contributed to Rodgers losing his job. And the rest, as they say is history, with the beginning of the end for the Northern Irishman arguably started with the puzzling arrival of Lambert in the summer of 2014.