Liverpool’s 32 Best Signings Under Brendan Rodgers
By Tom Bogert
25. Fabio Borini/£10.4m/Roma/July 2012
There are a lot of things to be admired about Fabio Borini. Unfortunately top-class footballing ability is not one of them.
Borini absolutely works his stones off irrespective of which side has possession. He tirelessly works to retrieve the ball for his side doesn’t have it and when in control he’s an enthusiastic runner.
The Italian worked with Rodgers during his time in the Chelsea youth setup as well as a loan spell at Swansea when Rodgers was the manager. In 2013-14, Rodgers sanctioned the loaning of Borini to Sunderland where he won Fans Player of the Year award for the Black Cats.
Borini seems a decent, honest man. When given the chance to make that move to Sunderland permanent, as well as making permanent his regular first team football, he told Rodgers he wanted to stay and fight for his place. You know who else did that? Jordan Henderson, when he was nearly swapped to Fulham for Clint Dempsey, and the now Liverpool captain was commended for his courage when he did it.
Fans slammed Borini for the same act, trying to say he just wanted to keep his wages. I believe he truly wanted to stay and fight his way back into the team.
Fans just wanted the huge £13million bounty Sunderland offered for him.
Regrettably, Borini wasn’t good enough for Liverpool Football Club. He stayed throughout the horrific 2014-15 campaign making 12 appearances in the league and scoring one lonesome goal.
He ended up making his return to Sunderland for a fee of around £8million, a few million less than what was offered a year prior.
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