Michael Edwards regretted Liverpool transfer all scouts in Europe wanted to make

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Yes, you could argue that Federico Chiesa's switch has not fully worked out to date, but the Reds only paid an initial £10m for the Italy international, who despite his limited opportunities, is still a fan favourite.Chiesa was the sole signing of Arne Slot's first summer in charge but 12 months later Liverpool, fresh from winning the Champions League, splashed out more than £400m to bring in a group of players who have already justified or are beginning to justify their huge price tags, like Hugo Ekitike and Florian Wirtz, while others, like the £125m British transfer record capture Alexander Isak and the highly rated Giovanni Leoni, have just had rotten luck.Indeed, there is complete confidence at Anfield that all the players brought in last summer will be successes.READ MORE: Arne Slot gives new Florian Wirtz injury update and issues caution over returning Liverpool starBut before Slot's arrival, how many unmitigated flops did the Reds really sign under Jurgen Klopp’s watch?Naby Keita, Thiago Alcantara and Calvin Ramsay were plagued by injury, while the likes of Fabio Carvalho, Takumi Minamino, Sepp van den Berg, Dominic Solanke, Marko Grujic and Ben Davies were all low-cost and sold for considerable profit.Arthur Melo, Ozan Kabak and Steven Caulker were all emergency loan signings brought in when the club’s hand was forced by absences elsewhere, returning to their parent clubs after limited impact.And while the club-record £85m signing of Darwin Nunez did not live up to initial expectations, he still played his part over three seasons, including last time out, when the top-flight title was lifted for a record-equalling 20th time.That arguably leaves Loris Karius as the only signing unable to boast an asterisk next to his name, with the German cursed by his horror show in the 2018 Champions League final.Even then, what is a small number of players you hoped for more from, against the much larger number of success stories that have led the club to every major honour?But prior to Klopp’s arrival at Liverpool in October 2015, the Reds’ record was prone to being rather more hit and miss. And one of the biggest flops under owners FSG was the £20m signing of Lazar Markovic from Benfica.He had shone for the Portuguese outfit in 2013/14, winning the domestic treble of Primeira Liga, Taca de Portugal and Taca da Liga, having already won back-to-back league titles with Partizan Belgrade in his native Serbia.But he struggled during his time at Liverpool, making 34 appearances and starting 23 times - returning three goals and an assist - before quickly being discarded by Brendan Rodgers after a failed attempt to utilise the forward as a wing-back.Dismal loan switches to Fenerbache, Sporting Lisbon, Hull City and Anderlecht followed, with Markovic remaining surplus to requirements under Klopp, before Fulham were persuaded to sign the winger on a free transfer in 2019 by Cottagers and Serbia striker Aleksandar Mitrovic.Markovic's fortunes did not improve at Craven Cottage though, as he left after making just one appearance in six months to return to Partizan Belgrade.Rebuilding his reputation in his homeland, Markovic also made an impact in Turkey with Gaziantep and Trabzonspor.

Ian Graham, Liverpool’s former director of research, concedes that Markovic was just not as good as the scouting reports at the time suggested when he was being touted as ‘the hottest young prospect’ across Europe.In his book, ‘How to Win the Premier League: The Inside Story of Football's Data Revolution,’ he revealed how the Reds’ sporting director at the time, Michael Edwards, considers signing Markovic as his biggest regret, with Liverpool even changing how they assessed serious transfer targets following their experience with the Serb.“Markovic looked quite good in our data analysis but we had seen limited minutes: the Portuguese league was not fully covered by our suppliers back in 2014,” Graham wrote. In retrospect, the problem was that the games where Markovic was scouted happened to be his best performances of the season.“This led to our scoring reports being too optimistic in their estimate of his abilities.

His video analysis had also shown a player much more variable than the scouting reports implied.“Eddy cites signing Markovic as his biggest regret, but at least we learned from the experience. This was the failure that led to an extra layer of detailed video analysis being added for every serious transfer target Liverpool considered from that point on.”So Markovic is arguably Liverpool’s self-confessed biggest transfer flop.But the Reds at least turned such an experience into a positive, with the Serbian inadvertently playing a decisive role in all of the club’s successful signings over the past decade after prompting the aforementioned change in the club’s scouting set-up in the first place.Ensure our latest sport headlines always appear at the top of your Google Search by making us a Preferred Source.