Before Jurgen Klopp arrived at Liverpool in October 2015, It's safe to say that the club was in a mess, and they were heading in the wrong direction.
Under Brendan Rodgers, the Reds had challenged for the Premier League title only once, during the 2013/14 season and if it hadn’t been for a collapse of epic proportions, the Northern Irishman would’ve secured their first title since 1990.
Alas, they dropped points against Chelsea and Crystal Palace while Manchester City swooped in and snatched the most elusive of prizes away from the Anfield side. Having not expected to challenge for the league crown, Rodgers headed into the summer of 2014 aiming to further strengthen his squad in order to maintain another title push.
Luis Suárez, so often their talisman during 2013/14, was sold to Barcelona for a staggering £75m transfer fee, giving Rodgers a war chest to spend on new players.
The Uruguayan was arguably coming into his peak years, yet a sum like that proved too good to turn down and the former Swansea City boss embarked on a spending spree which the vast majority of Liverpool supporters will look back on and shudder.
In came the likes of Mario Balotelli, Alberto Moreno, Dejan Lovren and Adam Lallana among others, yet they didn’t exactly have the desired impact as the Reds finished the season trophyless as a title challenge was too tall a task, ending the campaign in sixth position.
One of Rodgers’ most disappointing signings was that of Lazar Markovic, who was expected to blossom into one of the finest attacking players on the continent following his move from Benfica.
How much did Lazar Markovic cost Liverpool?
The 20-year-old looked like he had a wonderful future ahead of him. The winger had already made 49 appearances for the Portuguese side while even earning 13 full caps for Serbia and for a fee of £20m, Rodgers looked to have secured an incredible bargain.
It wasn’t the most they had spent on a player that summer, yet it certainly looked like the most astute purchase, comforting themselves with the knowledge that if the player continued his meteoric rise and impressed in England, the youngster would soon rake in a massive profit for the Reds.
This was echoed by journalist Andy Brassell, who said: “He’s a player with a rare talent.
“The raw potential is absolutely enormous. If he can progress at the present rate he’s going to be worth twice the money that they paid for him in 12 to 18 months’ time, so it’s a good investment.”
Unfortunately, like most young gems who arrive in England with much fanfare and hype, Markovic failed to have a positive impact during his spell in Merseyside and the vast transfer fee clearly affected him and his performances.
What happened to Lazar Markovic?
As mentioned, the 2014/15 season proved to be underwhelming to say the least, with Rodgers failing to inspire the club to the heights they achieved the term before.
Much of this was down to his summer signings, as Balotelli barely found the net – scoring just four goals in 28 games for the club – while Lovren struggled to cope with the pressures of playing for Liverpool.
Markovic did get plenty of chances during his maiden campaign, making 34 appearances across all competitions, yet only 23 of these were starts and the winger contributed just three goals and a single assist, hardly figures that justified such a vast financial outlay.
These would be the only goals he would score for the Anfield side as he spent the next three years on loan at clubs such as Fenerbahce, Sporting CP and Hull City before finally leaving the Reds for free in 2019 for Fulham, as Klopp managed to get his reported £50k-per-week wages off the books.
Across five and a half years contracted to the club, Markovic played all of his matches during his debut season and he cost them £6.6m per goal, a rather disastrous sum of money which could have been spent elsewhere.
The Merseyside outfit had a nightmare on the right-winger back in 2014, and he is still currently playing, although failing to hit the heights which were projected for him all those years ago.
Where is Lazar Markovic now?
After leaving Fulham, the former Benfica starlet enjoyed somewhat of a career resurgence at his first club, Partizan Belgrade, as he registered 34 goal contributions – 20 goals and 14 assists – across three seasons, although it ended up being yet another false dawn.
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34
49
7
34
3
29
5
21
2
14
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14
2
9
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1
1
0
Since the beginning of last season, Markovic has been plying his trade in Turkey, turning out for both Gaziantep and Trabzonspor, scoring just six times in 38 appearances combined.
Indeed, across 27 league matches during the 2022/23 season, Markovic missed six big chances, averaged only 0.3 shots on target per game and created just one big chance as he clearly failed to get his creative juices flowing or contribute anything meaningful to both his teams.
He hasn’t been much better during the embryonic stages of the new campaign either, ranking in a lowly ninth spot for overall Sofascore rating across the Gaziantep squad (6.79) while also ranking 11th for shots on target (0.1) per game, sixth for big chances created (one) and eighth for key passes per game (0.6), demonstrating that he is even struggling to perform in Turkey.
It has been a steady decline for a number of years now and remarkably, the winger is still only 29 years old, indicating that he has frittered away the peak years of his career at a variety of clubs where he failed to showcase his talents.
The Reds had a nightmare on a player who looked destined for the very top and this didn’t exactly help Rodgers' cause when it came to challenging for success during the 2014/15 campaign.
Much of Klopp’s success as Liverpool manager has come down to his diligence in the transfer market, ensuring that expensive duds like Markovic are avoided.
Of course, mistakes do still happen, yet it wasn’t just the Serbian who failed to live up to the hype during their period at the Reds under Rodgers and his signing clearly put the club back a few steps, wasting vast amounts of money in the process.