"He came on the latest episode of Rio Ferdinand Presents Podcast, discussing various topics. Gerrard opened up on Trent Alexander-Arnold's controversial move to Madrid. He also discussed the club's decision to not sign Anelka, describing it as a classic case of the club getting recruitment badly wrong, opting for a striker based on a short burst of international form rather than proven, long-term pedigree."
"Gerrard recalled: We got recruitment badly wrong at times. I'll give you one example, we had the chance to sign Nicolas Anelka or El Hadj Diouf, and we bought Diouf on the back of a four or five game World Cup instead of someone off the back of five or six years. Gerrard pointed to Anelka's aura during training as evidence of his quality: Anelka came into our training sessions, was the coolest man ever, calm, relaxed, you just knew he had aura and confidence in himself, he was ready to win."
Liverpool's 2002 decision to sign El Hadji Diouf instead of Nicolas Anelka is regarded as a major transfer regret. Nicolas Anelka impressed teammates during a loan spell with calmness, confidence and clear superiority in training. Liverpool opted for Diouf after a short run of World Cup form rather than pursuing Anelka's sustained pedigree. Diouf failed to meet expectations on and off the pitch, while Anelka went on to enjoy a successful Premier League career across several clubs, underscoring a recruitment mistake driven by short-term performance signals.
Read at www.caughtoffside.com
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