'I rejected senior Liverpool star when he was a youngster - I didn't think he was great'
The former Chelsea scout has discussed the players he rejected while serving in his role at Stamford Bridge.
A former scout at a Premier League rival has revealed he turned down the chance to sign Liverpool’s longest-serving player when he was a teenager.
The Reds signed Joe Gomez in June 2015. Liverpool were impressed by the progress that the versatile defender has made at Charlton Athletic in the Championship and splashed out £3.5 million for his services.
Ten years later, Gomez finds himself still within the Anfield dressing room. He’s the only player who has been part of eras under Brendan Rodgers, Jurgen Klopp and now Arne Slot. He has made 241 appearances for the Reds and won seven major trophies including the Premier League and Champions League, as well as earning 15 England caps.
However, Chris Robinson - who served as a Chelsea scout and is now Southampton’s head of academy recruitment - revealed that he watched Gomez as a youngster. But along with Jadon Sancho and Dele Alli, he rebuffed signing Gomes for the Stamford Bridge and didn’t think he ‘was a great footballer’.
What’s been said
Speaking on talkSPORT, Robinson said: “A while ago I was watching England game. One of my sons phones me and said: ‘Do you realise there are three players playing who you said no to!’ I watched Jaden play for Watford when I was at Chelsea. We knew he was probably going to Man City, he was 14 . I didn’t think he was better than what we had, he was a different sort of player than he became to be fair. He was more of a striker, more of a No.9. He was a good player but he wasn’t the tricky winger that he became.
“Dele Alli I watched at MK Dons when he was playing in the first team at a young age and he was again a different build, different type of player. I said in my reports that we had two players at Chelsea – Ruben Loftus-Cheek and Lewis Baker - who I thought were better than him. I still stand by that in the sense at that time, I was right. I couldn’t foresee that he would go to Spurs, there were loads of clubs looking at him, they would make him the different sort of player and he had the impact he had.
“Joe Gomez at Charlton, I went to watch Joe and I thought he’s a good athlete, I didn’t think he was a great footballer. As a scout, you have to be brave and ready to make decisions and recommendations and they’re not always going to be right.”
Joe Gomez’s future
Gomez is on track to win a second Premier League title with Liverpool this season. However, the 27-year-old is currently recovering from a hamstring surgery, having had surgery in February. The Reds are hopeful that he will be back before the end of the campaign.
But Gomez’s future into next term is somewhat uncertain. When fit, he has been third-choice centre-back behind Virgil van Dijk and Ibrahima Konate. Last summer, Liverpool were prepared to trade Gomez for £45 million to Newcastle United, with Anthony Gordon heading the opposite way a £75 million fee.