October 2010 marked a big change for Liverpool as Fenway Sports Group took control of the club following the exit of Tom Hicks and George Gillett.
John W. Henry, as principal owner, and working with chairman Tom Werner, set out to unleash a new era at Anfield. And within weeks of his arrival, Henry had made his mark.
As it was on this day 12 years ago that Liverpool announced Damien Comolli as the club’s director of football strategy to work alongside manager Roy Hodgson, who been appointed in the summer before FSG's arrival.
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Comolli was brought in from Saint-Etienne but it was his time at Tottenham Hotspur, where he was director of football, that is said to have attracted the interest of Henry and Co. At Spurs, Comolli had helped identify Gareth Bale, and the new Reds owners hoped he would replicate that at Anfield.
Henry, who does not often make public statements, spoke out after the appointment of Comolli. The Boston businessman felt the hiring of the Frenchman was a key step in getting the club back on track to becoming a superpower once more.
Henry said in 2010: "Today's announcement is just the first step in creating a leadership group and structure designed to develop, enhance and implement our long-term philosophy of scouting, recruitment, player development and all of the other aspects necessary to build and sustain a club able to consistently compete at the highest level in European football."
Henry was setting his stall out early on. He wanted Liverpool to be back among the best, even though his words came just three years after the club reached the Champions League final in 2007.
And he was firmly behind having Hodgson as manager. The American was quick to defend the then-Liverpool boss with the club languishing in the bottom half of the table at the time of Comolli’s appointment.
"We are building an infrastructure, we're building a team," said Henry. "In Boston, we have a collegiate atmosphere and we build consensus. We don't change coaches very often. Stability is very important in an organisation.
“Roy has been unfairly criticised. He didn't build this team and it takes time for a new manager and a club to really click."
Hodgson admitted he was looking forward to working with Comolli. "I feel very good about it. It is something we have talked about with the owners and something they were very keen to put in place," he said.
"The owners come from an American sporting background where the team manager is very much responsible for team affairs, but alongside him there is a person who can have all sorts of titles, a type of sporting director in European terms.
"If you're going to run a football club these days there are a lot of elements that need to be dealt with. Recruitment of players and scouting is a major, major aspect in this respect, as of course is the Academy and all the work you need to do to bring players through. All of this has a life of its own to some extent outside the life of a first-team squad.
"In Europe I am very used to having a situation where you have to work alongside people like that and I think it is becoming more and more common in England as well, so that's something the new owners wanted to introduce to the club and I welcome it very much.
"The days of the 'dictator type' English manager have long since passed anyway, where everything went through one man and no-one dared even buy a paper clip without that person's approval.
"It is just a question of strategy which I think makes a lot of sense for all football clubs and certainly makes a lot of sense for our football club at this moment in time because we're in a transition.
"I think it is going to be a great advantage to us to have a man of Damien's qualities, knowledge and experience and I think we can only profit from it as a club. I am looking forward to working with him."
But just a couple of months into his new job, Comolli would be working with a different manager. By January 2011, Hodgson was dismissed and replaced by club legend Sir Kenny Dalglish.
January happened to be a busy transfer window for Comolli. Deadline day saw Andy Carroll and Luis Suarez arrive at the club, with Fernando Torres heading to Chelsea.
By March, the now-49-year-old was handed a new role that saw Comolli promoted to director of football. FSG had seen enough in just four months to hand him further responsibilities.
"I know there is still a lot of work to do, we're not where we want to be yet and it'll probably take a few months to do that, but I am totally confident," Comolli said. "All the signs are very positive and I can see only green lights, no red lights.
"We've had some ups and downs and hopefully there will be a lot of ups in the future. With the backing of the owners and the way they are committed, I'm sure we'll have a bright future.”
Comolli also commented on the club’s decision to remove Hodgson and replace him with Dalglish. "It was a tough decision made by the club,” he said. “But we have been looking forward since that and making other appointments with key individuals as we look to restructure the club. We are definitely looking forward to a bright future."
Comolli elaborated on his new role, adding: "It covers pretty much all of the football side. It's basically a day-to-day relationship with the manager and his coaching staff, it's also medical and sports science, performance analysis, player liaison, team travel, scouting and negotiating transfer contracts. A big part of it is the academy."
The summer of 2011 saw Comolli oversee the signings of Jordan Henderson, Stewart Downing, Charlie Adam, Jose Enrique and Sebastian Coates, with a host of players leaving. Raul Meireles, David N’Gog, Paul Konchesky, Emiliano Insua, Fabio Aurelio and Milan Jovanovic all departed.
With FSG in their second season owning the club, they would have hoped to see improvement. However, by April 2012, even though Liverpool had won the League Cup and were on their way to an FA Cup final, the owners felt change was needed.
With the owners unhappy about the return on their investment in the transfer market, having spent around £120m since his appointment, Comolli left the club by mutual consent.
Comolli would later speak and make a claim about his exit that involved now Reds captain Henderson. "Henderson is one of the main reasons I got sacked,” Comolli told talkSPORT in October 2016. “The day I got sacked they told me I had made a big mistake on Jordan and he was a waste of money.
“Everybody is entitled to their own opinion, but I think we paid the right price. He was a young English, British player and we know very often that British players are overvalued. But we were more than happy to pay the price because we thought he would become an outstanding player.
“I never said it publicly, but I was convinced he would be the future captain. People will say it is easy to say now, but I was convinced at the time that he would become the Liverpool captain. Now he is and he is also the England captain.”
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