One of the problems that Comolli himself attributes to the failure of his time at St-Etienne is the lack of clear direction he was given. The Frenchman said over the weekend in L’Equipe that it was nice to have some “clarity” from the shareholders at Liverpool as to what they want. Clearly Comolli feels that the co-chairmanship at St-Etienne made it uncertain as to what his role was at the club with Caiazzo obviously clearly unhappy with the work he was doing while his fellow co-chairman supported him. Caiazzo said:

“I would have fired him then but my co-chairman defended him for months, even when results were poor. I know he sees Damien’s departure as something of a personal betrayal. It was a mistake bringing him back to the club.”

Certainly such a hierarchy could not be sustainable and perhaps St-Etienne can be seen as somewhat of an aberration for Comolli, but there were other question marks about his time at the French club. He spent £19million on seven players only one of which made it to the first squad. For a club like St-Etienne with no money it was a tremendous risk that backfired. The players he bought lost 30% of their value over six months according to Caiazzo and he refused to sign Laurent Koscielny for the a tenth of the price that Arsenal paid Lorient last summer.

Of course these are all examples given by Caiazzo and there is clear animosity between him and Comolli which means that such facts might be exaggerated. Comolli has always emphasised long term projects and perhaps those seven players will become essential players for St-Etienne over time but it is a word of caution for Liverpool fans about Comolli in this coming transfer window.

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