Liverpool Must Regret Choosing Mario Balotelli over Wilfried Bony

Liverpool now have an additional footnote to accompany the question that has undermined them all the way through this season: Who will replace Luis Suarez and Steven Gerrard at the club? 

The latter’s Anfield departure at the end of the season will pluck an emotional chord untouched since the sepia-tinged days of Kenny Dalglish, Graeme Souness et al, but it is the former who continues to cast the deepest, darkest shadow over the Reds.

Brendan Rodgers’ side have yet to move on from the £75 million sale of Suarez to Barcelona, with Mario Balotelli failing to bed into his new team and Daniel Sturridge missing the majority of the season with a series of persistent injuries.

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Naturally, Liverpool have been linked with a host of potential solutions to their attacking problems, but the best fit for their side would appear to already be on the move to a Premier League rival: Wilfried Bony.

Rodgers must regret his decision not to sign Bony and instead sign Balotelli, English football’s most notorious wild child, in the summer—of course, assuming that it was his decision at all, given how Liverpool’s now infamous transfer committee have conducted much of the club’s recent transfer dealings.

Balotelli has done nothing to justify Liverpool’s move for him, although that might be down to a conflict of styles and ideologies as much as anything. The Italian is simply too static for the Reds’ dynamic and free-flowing style of play. It was never going to work. A move for Bony would have made much more sense.

Bony was heavily linked with a move to Anfield—as per Alan Nixon of the Sunday People—as Liverpool assessed their options following the sale of Suarez. The Ivory Coast forward was reported to be near the top of Rodgers’ shortlist, and he would have been a shrewd signing given his form for Swansea City in his debut Premier League season. 

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He was the player that Liverpool needed. They were never going to find a direct replacement for Suarez (although Alexis Sanchez would have been pretty close), but Bony’s impressive hold-up play and physical force in driving at opposition back lines would have given the Reds a much-needed focal point up front.

And with a £19 million buyout clause written into the Ivorian striker’s contract—as per Darren Lewis of the Mirror—he would have been a relatively straightforward signing for Liverpool to make, with Champions League football an understandable lure for Bony.

The £100,000 a week wage reportedly being demanded by Bony would have been a stumbling block for Liverpool, but Balotelli surely can’t be earning much less than that. In the current market, the Swansea striker would have represented reasonable value.

Much has changed, however, since Bony was a viable transfer target for Liverpool. The Ivorian now looks set to complete a £30 million move to Premier League champions Manchester City—as per Sky Sports News HQ (h/t Richard Arrowsmith of the Mail)—with the move to be finalised in the next few days. The Reds have missed their chance.

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City see Bony as the perfect man to complement their already formidable front line, bringing a certain presence that they perhaps lack at present. And that’s the kicker for Liverpool. Bony won’t even be first choice at the Etihad Stadium. The man that could revitalise the Reds’ attack probably won’t even start for Manuel Pellegrini’s side.

Of course, Liverpool had the chance to sign Bony all the way back in 2007, when he spent a week on trial with the Merseyside club when Rafael Benitez was in charge. The Ivorian was overlooked then, and he was overlooked once again by Rodgers last summer as he searched for a striker in the transfer market. 

No player scored more Premier League goals in 2014 than Bony, and Liverpool have not been without their chances to sign him. However, they may have just passed up their final opportunity.