10 Players Relieved They Didn't Sign For Liverpool
7. Mario Gomez
''Liverpool almost signed the Bayern Munich striker before we moved for Andy Carroll. The move for Gomez fell through at the last minute - when Hodgson was Liverpool manager - and since then, Gomez has not stopped scoring. - Jamie Carragher, June 2012.
Nobody knows why Liverpool failed to land Mario Gomez, but being lumped with Andy Carroll in return for £35 million surely only compounded their misery. The German hit-man had struggled in his debut season for the Bavarians, notching just ten league goals which led Hodgson to pounce for his signature. However, once the move failed to materialise, Gomez returned to Munich as a man reborn and scored an impressive 99 goals in 129 appearances before leaving for Fiorentina in 2013. While Liverpools £35 million star signing struggled for form and fitness, Gomez was adding Bundesliga, Champions League and domestic cup winners medals to his collection, as well as scooping the Bundesliga Top Goalscorer Award with 28 goals in 2011. Anfield was but a distant memory for the German as he stood on the victorious Champions League winners podium in May 2013, directly a year after surrendering the final to Chelsea on their home turf in an encounter where Gomez missed a hatful of chances. Vindication.
Recent Journalism & New Media graduate. Insatiable thirst for all things football, and hopes to break into the field of sports journalism in the near future.
Have made a significantly insignificant playing career out of receiving several slaps around the head for not passing the ball.
