Liverpool made me an offer – but I signed and broke my leg the next day
Roy Hodgson signed Paul Koncheksy for Liverpool in the summer of 2010, but he wasn’t the only former player he tried to sign from Fulham.
England’s Bobby Zamora reacts to a missed goal during the international friendly between England and Hungary at Wembley Stadium
Roy Hodgson’s short reign as Liverpool manager is not viewed kindly.
The Crystal Palace boss replaced Rafa Benitez in the Anfield dugout in the summer of 2010, but was sacked by new owners FSG in July 2011 after a poor spell on Merseyside, managing just 13 wins from 31 games.
His transfer record with the club is one Kopites would rather forget, having signed failures Milan Jovanovic, Joe Cole, Christian Poulsen, Danny Wilson and Paul Konchesky. The latter would follow Hodgson from Fulham to Anfield in the summer transfer window as part of an infamous deal in which the then Liverpool boss accidentally sold the wrong player as one of two youngsters who left the club in a transfer.
However, Konchesky was not the only player Hodgson tried to sign from Fulham after becoming Reds manager. Fernando Torres struggled with injuries and his future came under scrutiny, eventually leading to a £50 million move to Chelsea in January 2011, with the former Liverpool manager also attempting to sign Bobby Zamora from his former club.
The striker said the Reds had even made offers for him but signed a new deal at Craven Cottage after Hodgson’s successor Mark Hughes told him he wanted him to stay at Fulham.
“We had Mark Hughes at Fulham at the time,” revealed the former England international, speaking on the Say it and Spray It Podcast. – I enjoyed my time with Marko, he came at the beginning of the season, I had a good pre-season with him.
“Roy (Hodgson) came for me at Liverpool and Harry Redknapp at Spurs but Marko said he wanted me to stay and I just had twins in August. “The end of the transfer window was coming and they both made offers, I ended up signing a new contract and broke my leg the next day.”
Zamora arguably enjoyed a successful season in Hodgson’s final year at Fulham, scoring 19 goals in all competitions as the Cottagers reached the Europa League final. Meanwhile, he scored an impressive seven goals in 16 games in the 2010/11 season while recovering from the aforementioned broken leg.
But on the only occasion he has scored more than 10 Premier League goals in a season, he has never scored more than seven in a campaign in the years since Liverpool’s failed bid. Zamora was 29 at the time of his failed move to the Reds and retired from football six years later in December 2016.
By contrast, Hodgson’s successor, Sir Kenny Dalglish, signed both Luis Suarez and Andy Carroll as part of a memorable £57.8m transfer window the following January after Torres left Chelsea. Although Carroll later went down, Suarez proved to be one of their best contributors in the Premier League era, scoring 82 goals in 133 games before leaving for Barcelona in the summer of 2014 in a £65 million deal.