Where are they now? Liverpool’s 3 worst signings of all time according to Jamie Carragher
Back in 2016, Jamie Carragher was asked to reminisce about his long Liverpool career and who the worst three signings were from his time at the club.
While they have become a transfer powerhouse since his retirement, seemingly never putting a foot wrong, the same can’t be said across Carragher’s 14-year one-club career at Anfield.
Speaking in a Q&A session with the Daily Mail in 2016, Carragher named the three worst Liverpool signings from across his time at the club and we’ve checked out where all of those players are today.
El Hadji Diouf
Both Carragher and Steven Gerrard despised Diouf for his overall temperament, lack of effort and poor quality from his time at the club and he has spoken out on the forward since retiring.
Signed for £10million off the back of a brilliant 2002 World Cup, a lot was expected from the eccentric forward but he left with a record of just six goals in 79 appearances.
Carragher was once quoted as saying: “He has one of the worst strike rates of any forward in Liverpool history.
“He’s the only no. 9 ever to go through a whole season without scoring, in fact he’s probably the only no. 9 of any club to do that. He was always the last one to get picked in training.”
The beef between the pair has continued in a back-and-forth across the years, with Diouf calling him ‘a loser’ and Carragher claiming he enjoyed playing against him because he could kick him.
He didn’t help himself with his off-pitch antics that saw him fined £60,000 for spitting in 2003 and he has since come out and said he wished he had signed for Manchester United instead – it seems like a fair decision from Carragher to list him within this three.
After Liverpool, he played for Bolton, Sunderland, Blackburn Rovers, Rangers, Doncaster Rovers, Leeds United and Malayasian club Sabah FA before retiring in 2015.
In retirement, he returned to his native Senegal to work as a government goodwill ambassador and adviser on sport where he also runs a newspaper and a gymnasium.
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Alberto Aquilani
The Italian midfielder was seen as a strong addition at the time given he had built a strong reputation in Italy with Roma, winning three major trophies before a £17million move.
Instead, his career at Liverpool was tarnished by injuries as he missed 21 games across his only season with the squad before heading out on loan.
He managed just 28 games in total for the Reds and ended up on loan at both Juventus and AC Milan where he managed to be a key figure starting regularly to make matters worse before signing for Fiorentina in 2012.
Carragher spoke on his time at the club: “Alberto Aquilani would have to be up there as well. We spent a lot of money on him. He was signed injured, he left injured and I can’t remember him not being injured.”
He went on to feature at Sporting, Pescara, Sassuolo and Las Palmas before retiring in 2018.
Since then, he’s gone into management and has managed one stint with SC Pisa in Serie B as he guided them to a midtable finish before exiting in 2024.
Mario Balotelli
And lastly, it is Super Mario himself. Signed for £16million in 2014, Brendan Rogers hoped to get the best out of him alongside Daniel Sturridge in life after Luis Suarez.
Commenting on Balotelli, Carragher made his feelings clear on the move. “I can’t believe we signed Mario Balotelli!
“The thing with Balotelli is everyone always says it’s the off-the-field antics, but I wouldn’t care if he was doing it on the pitch. People tell me he’s got talent but I can’t remember him having a good game.”
Carragher was right, Balotelli failed to ever produce anything that resembled consistency as his concentration and overall effort looked to be lacking.
While there were high hopes after his debut in the 3-0 win over Tottenham Hotspur at White Hart Lane where he enjoyed a promising start in his partnership with Sturridge, they failed to materialise.
He managed four goals in 28 games, which saw more yellow cards than goals (7) as he netted just once in the league.
After that, he spent the following season on loan at AC Milan before finding success at Nice until 2019 before then embarking on short spells at Brescia, Monza, Adana Demirspror, Sion, Demirspror again and now he finds himself at Genoa.
However, it has been a disaster as he has managed just six appearances totalling 56 minutes and is set to be released from his deal early – meaning the story of Balotelli will continue elsewhere but it remains to be seen what motivates the 34-year-old at this stage.