At any club, players come and go.
Some sign with big reputations and live up to them; others struggle with the weight of expectation.
A select few come through the ranks and go on to achieve startling success. Liverpool have certainly had a number of those players over the years.
But some youngsters are destined never to fulfill their promise and lodge themselves in our memories.
Here, then, are 10 players labelled 'the next big thing' at Liverpool who failed to make the grade for various reasons.
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Mark Kennedy
This lad arrived from Milwall with excellent references and seemed set to be the latest in a long line of Irish heroes at Anfield and another great Kennedy to follow in the footsteps of Ray and Alan. The fee, worth up to around £2.5m depending on appearances, made him football’s most expensive teenager in those quaint times.
The trouble was, he was a winger and Roy Evans was using wing-backs in a 3-5-2 formation, making Kennedy a rather odd signing. Luckily for Liverpool that kind of thing doesn’t happen these days. Much.
Kennedy played just 21 times in his three years at Liverpool, starting just five times, and was eventually sold to Wimbledon for £1.75m. The closest he ever came to a goal for the Reds was when he hit the bar on his debut.
After Wimbledon he moved to Manchester City , then in the second tier of the league, and was with them as they got promoted and then relegated again, eventually being sold by Kevin Keegan to Wolves. After that he went to Crystal Palace, Cardiff and then Ipswich Town, where he ended his playing career and starting his coaching. He made 34 appearances for his country but was never really considered a regular.
Richie Partridge
Amazing on Football Manager, Ritchie Partridge was every Liverpool fan’s ‘one to watch’ back when people said that kind of thing on forums rather than Twitter and as he rose through the youth ranks for Ireland it seemed it would only be a matter of time before the pacy winger would prove to be just as amazing in real life. He made his Reds debut in an 8-0 League Cup win over Stoke in 2000 but was only involved with the first team once more that season, as an unused UEFA Cup sub.
The following season he got a few more chances to sit on the bench as an unused sub but that was it for him under Gerard Houllier, he wasn’t involved at all for the next two seasons, although in part that was down to him missing ten months of football after doing his cruciate ligament.
Rafa Benitez arrived in 2004 and used the Dubliner as a sub twice in the League Cup, the winger scoring one of the penalties that saw the eventual finalists progress on penalties against Spurs, but that was to be his last kick of the ball for the Reds first team. As the Reds were celebrating their fifth European Cup and a mixed-up Steven Gerrard was flirting with Chelsea, Partridge was leaving Liverpool on a free transfer.
He would play for Sheffield Wednesday, Rotherham, Chester City, MK Dons and Stockport before moving to the Welsh Premier League with The New Saints and then Airbus UK Broughton. Ritchie, who is Michael Owen’s brother-in-law, finally had to quit the game due to persistent problems with that knee never quite living up to his Football Manager reputation. He eventually returned to Liverpool where he is now the club’s under-21s physio and no doubt able to offer a wealth of advice to today’s ‘next big things’ based on his own experiences at that level.
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Dani Pacheco
Signed by Rafa Benitez as a 16-year-old from Barcelona in the summer of 2007, Pacheco arrived with a reputation as one of the most promising youngsters in the Spanish game. Nicknamed ‘El Asesino’ – The Assassin – he was seen as something of a coup for Liverpool. He made his first team debut in 2009, coming on as a sub in the Champions League for Alberto Aquilani, who had just made his own first start for the Reds. He would go on to make seven appearances in all that season, all from the bench, but that first season in the senior side was also Rafa’s last. Roy Hodgson handed him his first start, in a Europa League qualifier, and he was one of those who appeared in that miserable League Cup defeat against Northampton.
When Hodgson was sacked Pacheco’s appearances dried up and he went out on loan to Norwich for the last two months of the campaign. He played six times, scored twice and practically earned himself the keys to the East Anglian city as he helped the Canaries to promotion to the top flight. That experience, of genuine first team English football, would have done him a great deal of good and fans were hopeful it would lead to him getting a run in the first team at Anfield. The club had other ideas and he was sent to Atletico Madrid on a season-long loan with an option to make the deal permanent at the end. Atletico immediately sent him out on loan to Rayo Vallecano and didn’t take up their option to buy him.
Back at Anfield in 2012 and Liverpool were now on their fourth manager in the five years he had been at the club. Rodgers handed him a couple of starts but by January had decided to send him out on loan, again not to an English club, instead to a Spanish second division side, SD Huesca. Huesca were relegated at the end of that season but still there were calls from Liverpool fans for him to finally be given his chance. It wasn’t to be, Rodgers sold him to AD Alcorcón, another Spanish second division side and the Assassin was gone along with all that promise after playing just 17 times for Liverpool.
He helped Real Betis to promotion to the top flight but seems destined to stay in Spain’s second tier, loaned out this season to Deportivo Alavés. He remains a Liverpool fan, as he shows from time to time on his Twitter account and many of his fellow Reds supporters still wonder what might have been had he not arrived during such a period of turbulence at the club.
Anthony Le Tallec
One of ‘Les Gems’ unveiled by Gerard Houllier, along with his cousin Florent Sinama-Pongolle, Le Tallec’s career was probably doomed as soon as he was handed the label of “the next Zidane”.
Part of a highly-rated French youth squad his signature was sought by a number of clubs, including Manchester United, according to reports of the time but it was Liverpool, with Houllier in charge, who won the battle for his services before promptly loaning the two of them back to Le Havre. Manchester United had just signed a promising young lad by the name of Christiano Ronaldo but there was anger in the Liverpool Echo that United’s starlet was getting far more attention than Liverpool’s.
“According to everyone who they make listen,” said the column in the Echo, “United have just signed the best teenager in the world. By God are we hearing about it. I'm not doubting Ronaldo's abilities. Clearly he's a talented kid who may be on the threshold of greatness. It just strikes me as rather odd that no-one has given the same attention to Liverpool's equally stunning new teenage recruit.”
When the loan with Le Havre ended Gerard Houllier was determined to reduce expectations of Le Tallec and his cousin and said they needed to earn their wings and learn their trade away from the first team to start with: “It will be better for both him and Florent to play in the reserves this season so they can get used to English football,” Houllier said, adding: “But in the future they will both be seen as important signings. It is only a matter of time, I can promise you that.”
Houllier’s promise turned out to be false as Tony Le T never even came close to living up to all that hype, but with the French U21 boss at the time, Raymond Domenech, branding the lack of first team action for the duo as “abnormal”, some might argue their development wasn’t handled as well as it could have been. “It is abnormal for boys of their age to play so rarely,” raged Domenech. “It is a true problem. When I think their coach is a former coach from the national team! He is not allowed to sign them and not play them. It is a mess.”
Le Tallec went out on loan to St Etienne in 2004 but returned in time for arguably his best moment in the Liverpool shirt in 2005. In what was definitely seen as a surprise move Rafa Benitez handed him a start in the Champions League quarter final at Anfield against Juventus and it’s Le Tallec’s assist that led to an amazing volley from Luis Garcia that gave the Reds another massive push on the road to making history in Istanbul. He played in two of Liverpool’s very early Champions League qualifiers the following season, both legs against Welsh champions Total Network Solutions, but never played again for the Reds. Loan moves to Sunderland, Sochaux and Le Mans followed, the final move being made permanent in 2008.
In 2010 he moved to Auxerre, who were relegated two years later. He moved back to Ligue One and Valenciennes but two years later once again found himself at a club that had been relegated. Now aged 31, Le Tallec seems to blame Rafa Benitez for his problems making it at Anfield: “Everything started well for me at Liverpool but, unfortunately, the arrival of Rafa Benítez broke my entire career strategy. Even though I was able to get experience, I lost about four years. I arrived at Liverpool as an 18-year-old, but then had to join clubs that were, not weaker, but less rated.” Last year he moved to Greek Superleague side Atromitos.
Florent Sinama-Pongolle
Pongolle found himself billed as “the next Thierry Henry”, and once again a tag that was far from helpful for a 16-year-old moving to a club in a new country. His best moment in Red has to be his equaliser against Olympiakos in the Champions League game best remembered for Steven Gerrard’s “You Beauty” goal.
Although neither of Houllier’s gems ever got close to the promise he believed they had they both played pivotal roles in Liverpool picking up their fifth European Cup. Since Liverpool sold him in 2006, Pongolle has played for nine clubs, including Chicago Fire of the MLS, and is currently playing in Scotland with Dundee United.
Gerardo Bruna
Another of those with a tag of “the next” someone or other, Bruna was billed as a future Lionel Messi. He arrived from Real Madrid in the summer of 2007 and was seen as one for the future by Rafa Benitez but never made it into the first team. He impressed in the Toulon tournament in 2009 and looked set to make it into the first team, only to suffer a knee injury that required surgery. By the time he was fit Roy Hodgson was boss and, although he got to train on a number of occasions with the first team, he was still some way of being part of the boss’s plans.
When Kenny Dalglish arrived he got told he wasn’t part of the plans at all. “Kenny Dalglish told me I was not going to play in his first team,” he said later, “So obviously I needed to do something.” He was released by the club in 2011, four years after arriving, and joined Blackpool, making just two league appearances before being released again two years later. Since then he’s played at Huesca, Tranmere, non-league Whitehawk and Accrington Stanley. Stanley released him last month, allowing the 25-year-old to move to Canada and Ottawa Fury in the North American Soccer League, where his manager is Kenny’s son Paul Dalglish.
Suso
Suso is probably best remembered for being the straight guy to Jose Enrique the Twitter comedian but he was very much expected to be a special player when he turned down both Real Madrid and Barcelona to join the Reds.
Saying he’d had good offers from both Spanish clubs, he said: “I was going to sign for Real Madrid but one day before it the phone rang and Rafael Benitez spoke to me. He convinced me that Liverpool was the club for me and after that I had to change my plans. I was going to come to Liverpool.” By the time he actually arrived Benitez was gone, by the time he made his debut Liverpool had got rid of another two managers.
It was Brendan Rodgers who gave him his debut as he put a young side out in the Europa League and by the end of that season he’s played 20 times all told and seemed destined to become a first team fixture. It wasn’t to be the case, Rodgers instead sending him out on loan to Spain and Almeria for the whole campaign.
The next season he remained at Anfield but made just one appearance, as a sub. He clearly wasn’t having the best of times and when he got fined £10k by the FA for a tweet aimed at Enrique it can’t have encouraged him to think that Liverpool remained the best place for him. Enrique jumped to the defence of his teammate after the ruling: “Is amazing how fa can fine my friend @suso30fernandez for a banter thing. Was just a joke!!!”
In January 2015 with six months left on his contract AC Milan agreed a deal with Liverpool to take him to Serie A. "I arrived very much as a boy and I have learned a lot. I have grown, but I have not noticed a lot of trust in me,” Suso said afterwards. 12 months after his move to Italy the Spaniard was sent out on loan to Genoa.
Andre Wisdom
At the age of 22 it might be a little early to ask ‘whatever happened to Andre Wisdom’ but it seems he is as far away from the Liverpool first team as he could be. Signed from Bradford City as a 14-year-old when Rafa Benitez was still the boss he went straight into the youth setup and hit the ground running. He had consistently played in higher age groups at Bradford and that continued with the Reds when the late Gary Ablett gave him his U18 debut at the tender age of 15.
As comfortable at full-back as he was at centre-back his size and strength gave him the appearance of being a man in a boys’ side and by the time he was 17 had made the bench for the first team a couple of times, eventually making his bow at 19 under new boss Brendan Rodgers. By the end of January in that first season as a first team player he had started 18 of Liverpool’s games in all competitions, 12 in the league, and it looked like he was on the verge of becoming a permanent first choice defender. However, that 18th game, a 2-2 draw against Arsenal, was to be his last for almost four months and until Liverpool’s penultimate game of the season, Rodgers preferring Glen Johnson and Jose Enrique at full back. The following season he was sent on loan to Derby where he played 34 times,receiving rave reviews as he helped them to the play-off finals.
There was one incident he wouldn’t have been too proud of during his spell with Derby when his £100k Porsche was mysteriously found stuck in mud in some woods a month after he joined, Andre reportedly getting lost on his way to the stadium, his satnav sending him three miles down a woodland track .
Rodgers still didn’t feel Wisdom was ready for the first team on a permanent basis and sent him out on loan to fellow Premier League side West Brom the following season. Despite playing in 24 of the Baggies’ league games he found once again he wasn’t considered ready for the first team by Rodgers and another loan deal was set up, this time at Norwich. This latest move has proved to be something of a nightmare for the player too, he has made just seven appearances and quite clearly isn’t getting the experience he needs at this stage in his career.
He might still have a future at Anfield - after Rodgers was sacked Wisdom said he had spoken to Jürgen Klopp and felt hopeful: “My future is definitely back at Liverpool because that is my dream and that is what I want to achieve. I’ve had a quick catch-up with him, he just said keep going, gain as much experience as you can, keep working hard and above all enjoy your football.” Klopp reportedly looked into recalling him from his loan period back in January as Liverpool faced an injury crisis but was unable to do so and Wisdom remains in limbo.
Jack Robinson
A product of the Reds’ Kirkby academy and part of the same group as fellow full-back Jon Flanagan, Warrington-born Robinson became Liverpool’s youngest ever first team player when Rafa Benitez handed him his debut aged 16 years and 250 days in one of the Spaniard’s last games as boss. He would have to wait almost a year for his next appearance, coming on as a 22nd minute sub for the injured Fabio Aurelio against Arsenal at The Emirates and impressing everybody with a performance that belied his youth.
Kenny Dalglish was manager by now and he felt confident enough in 17 year-old Robinson’s abilities to hand him his first start a week later as the Reds hammered Birmingham 5-0 at Anfield, the 17-year-old even confident enough to have a crack at goal from a full 30 yards out. He had just two more starts under Dalglish, both in the League Cup in 2011, following the arrival of Jose Enrique and not helped by long absences due to foot surgery and a groin injury.
He would make six appearances under Brendan Rodgers, none in the league, before heading to Championship side Wolves on a half-season loan and earning a place in the England U21 squad off the back of it. Rodgers still wasn’t ready to put him in the first team and sent him to Blackpool for the season. His spell at the seaside club saw him become a regular, playing 34 games, a total that might have been higher had it not been for three sendings-off and the suspensions that followed.
His career at Anfield was now over and he signed for Harry Redknapp’s QPR, who immediately sent him out on loan to Huddersfield. Still only 21, Robinson said at the time: “It was an easy decision for me to come here for a new challenge. Hopefully I can do well here and establish myself as a Premier League player in the future.” The Hoops were relegated that season and Robinson’s season was over even earlier when he suffered a serious knee injury in March 2015 that he is yet to come back from. Last week played an hour for the QPR development side and his hopeful of making his QPR debut soon.
It’s the second time his career has been set back by injury but at 22 years of age he still has time to live up to all that promise he showed that day at the Emirates as a teenager and if there is one person he can take inspiration from it’s his old Academy team mate and fellow full-back Jon Flanagan, who came back from his own injury nightmare this season to be handed a new contract and even the captain’s armband for one game.
Thomas Ince
Son of the former Manchester United and Liverpool midfielder Paul, Thomas Ince was always going to have huge expectations on his shoulders. More of a winger or second striker, it was while his dad was on Liverpool’s books that he joined the Reds Academy and he began to live up to many of those expectations as he moved through the youth ranks. Unfortunately his first team chances were restricted to just one game under Roy Hodgson, coming on as a sub for Dani Pacheco in extra time of the League Cup nightmare against Northampton Town.
Shortly after that his dad was appointed manager of Notts County and one of his first acts was to bring his son in on loan. "I've just brought my son in from Liverpool, not because he's my son but because he's a very good player,” Ince Senior said at the time. That move proved to be short lived, playing eight times before his father was sacked. Desperately unhappy with the lack of first team chances he had been given at Anfield, and with his father encouraging him to look for a move to a club that would give him those chances, young Ince turned down Liverpool’s offers of an extended contract and moved to Blackpool at the end of his existing deal.
Liverpool got £250k in compensation and Thomas got to play 34 times for his new club, scoring eight goals including one at Wembley in the play-off final. He went out on loan to Crystal Palace half way through his third season at the Seasiders, but he was to play just eight times for the London side, scoring once. Since then his career seems to have become something of a struggle, moving to Hull City only to be loaned out twice, although the second of those clubs was Derby County who made the deal permanent in 2015. So far this season he’s scored ten goals from 25 appearances and at 25 years old might well have the best years of his career still in front of him.