Liverpool chief Damien Comolli is in the bad books of former clubs Tottenham and Arsenal.
The Frenchman has angered prominent figures at both north London clubs, says the Guardian, by talking up the role that he played in the recruitment of certain players. His claim, for example, that it was he who conceived the signing of Dimitar Berbatov at Tottenham in 2006 has numbered among the many to go down badly at the club. His predecessor in the role, Frank Arnesen, had done the legwork on the Berbatov deal.
Sources at Tottenham say that the only discovery Comolli made was that of the left-back Benoît Assou-Ekotto, while they also mock him for electing to pursue the signing of the striker Darren Bent from Charlton Athletic in 2007 rather than follow up the club's initial interest in Fernando Torres, who would join Liverpool from Atlético Madrid that same summer. It ought to be noted that Torres was realistically only ever going to leave Spain for Anfield.
Comolli has been happy to accept the credit for some of Wenger's signings - in particular, Kolo Touré, Emmanuel Eboué and Gaël Clichy - but, again, this has not been well received at Arsenal. Wenger's relationship with Comolli is strained.
"I let you write what you want [about Comolli]," Wenger said. "He was a scout here and not a director of football. He worked under Steve Rowley [the chief scout]. That is it. Only one person decides who comes in here and that is me. Nobody else."
