Henderson signing cost me Liverpool job, says Comolli

Comolli was in Dublin yesterday as part of the Web Summit, and revealed how he got âso much criticismâ for signing the England man.
Henderson moved to Liverpool in 2011 for ÂŁ20 million, but failed to shine in his first season.
The former Sunderland man is now club vice-captain â but performed poorly in his first two seasons at the club.
âWhen we signed Jordan Henderson, he got so much criticism, I got so much criticism,â Comolli said. âI was never told why I was sacked but I was led to believe it was because we signed Jordan Henderson, and the owners were convinced he was not good enough.â
Comolli says statistics played a big part in the transfer policy at Anfield in his time, and were integral to the club signing Luis Suarez.
Comolli said Liverpool had relied on the âeyes, ears and numbersâ formula to evaluate Suarez while he played in Holland.
âWeâd watched him since Groningen, so we were aware of what he did, how he played and so on. That was the âeyesâ part,â said Comolli.
âNumbers? We didnât have a lot of data on the Dutch League at the time, but we knew heâd scored 41 in 61: numbers.
âWe tried to measure what goals in other leagues would be âworthâ in the Premier League. Itâs not perfect but we felt a goal in Holland was worth one-10th of a Premier League goal.
âSo we felt he wouldnât get 41 in 61, but we were wrong â he got 31 in 33 games.
âWe looked at other factors â how and when he scored, did he score when they were chasing the game or when they were three-nil up, did he get equalisers, could you rely on him to score away from home, did he only score against weak teams or against top teams.
âDid he create chances, did he deliver assists, how did he play in the last third?
âAnother question was personality. We needed personality up front, â would he be a technical and emotional leader for the team at the front and give it that spark?
âWhen we looked at it, he gave us everything.â
Comolli says the last part of the equation then came into play.
âOur chief scout heard that we could do the deal, that they (Ajax) wanted to sell him: ears. We couldnât believe it and decided to move.
âWe heard people saying he couldnât play in the Premier League â Spurs had him, but they decided he couldnât play in England, so they moved away.
âThey heard we were interested and tried to move in, but it was too late.â
Comolli also said that statistics contradicted an article of faith in field sports, that young players can play more games because they recover quicker.
âMeasuring the load the young player can take, you want to ensure that when he becomes a mature player at 23 that heâll continue like that for 10 years.
âAt Liverpool we had devices to measure player load, we had five and tried them on young players. At the time John Flanagan was in the first team, he was 18 but playing quite a lot.
âWhat we found out went totally against everything Iâve heard since I was brought up in football, that young players can play more because they recover quicker.
âRubbish. We found that John Flanaganâs heart rate was coming back to normal 72 hours after a 90-minute game, whereas a senior player was coming back to normal 24-36 hours later. That meant the risk of breaking down for him, if we played him within 72 hours of that game, was massive.â