10 Players Who Didn't Fulfil Their Potential At Liverpool

7. Stewart Downing

Kenny Dalglish bought Downing to Liverpool for £18.5m in July 2011, with many feeling it was a golden opportunity for the then 26-year-old to finally fulfil his potential. As it turned out, his two years at the club were utterly forgettable, and the vast fee the club paid for him looked overblown to say the least. If ever there was a player who looked daunted by playing for a club of Liverpool's stature it was the former Middlesborough man. He looked scared to try anything out of the ordinary on the ball, and his wing play became about as one-dimensional as it gets. 36 appearances in the Premier League in 2011/12 saw Downing fail to register a single goal or assist, despite playing in an attacking side, and along with Charlie Adam and Andy Carroll- more on him later- he was deemed a complete waste of money. Under Brendan Rodgers in 2012/13 the former England winger didn't fare much better, scoring just five times in 45 games. He perfectly epitomised the chasm between the Reds and those at the top of the Premier League table at that time, and finally joined West Ham in the summer of 2013 for a fee of around £5m, ending two of the most insipid seasons in a Liverpool shirt in the process.