Liverpool's Biggest Regret of the 2014/15 Premier League Season

Liverpool's 2014/15 season ended a week ago with the 6-1 humiliation at Stoke City, compounding a miserable campaign for Brendan Rodgers' side.

Having spent five years out Europe's elite competition, 2014/15 saw the Reds return to the Champions League—only to win just one of their six group games, go out of the Europa League at the first opportunity, then fail to qualify for next season's competition after finishing sixth in the Premier League.

Instead of Rodgers' third season being one of progress, it's seen them return to where they were when the Northern Irishman took over three years ago and it's difficult to see them returning to the Champions League imminently.

So where did it all go wrong? What is the biggest regret of the 2014/15 season?

Without a doubt it all leads back to Luis Suarez's departure and the absolute failure to even remotely replace the world-class Uruguayan adequately.

There's been many appraisals written on where it went wrong for Liverpool and the problems facing the club at the moment, but every problem leads back to the club's recruitment of players last summer.

Somehow, the club's fabled transfer committee ended up spending £107 million on 10 new players, none of which had remotely similar attributes to the departing Suarez. It was a failure for which somebody must be culpable and is a sackable offence.

The problem, of course, is that little is known publicly about who exactly makes the decisions within Liverpool and the shared minds concept of a committee process means fingers can be pointed at each other and nobody is held directly responsible.

Why, exactly, did Liverpool fail to lure Alexis Sanchez to Merseyside rather than London? They held the upper hand on Arsenal with Suarez heading from Anfield to the Camp Nou but still allowed their rivals to claim the one player who could have replaced a large amount of Suarez's ability.

Shaun Botterill/Getty Images

"Not signing Alexis Sanchez was the moment they let Arsenal stroll past them last summer," explained the Telegraph's Chris Bascombe on the AnfieldHQ podcast (via This Is Anfield). "We’ll never know how different this season would have been [had he signed for Liverpool]."

It's something Liverpool fans have pondered every time the Chilean forward has hit the back of the net for Arsenal this season and which surely haunts Rodgers similarly.

A part-exchange for Suarez and Sanchez should have, someway, somehow, been forced.

Scott Heavey/Getty Images

Having sought Sanchez and lost out, the Reds then looked to have acquired Loic Remy from Queens Park Rangers, only to pull out of the deal at the 11th hour, per James Pearce of the Liverpool Echo.

Remy, at least, was a mobile centre-forward who could have partnered Daniel Sturridge or played as a lone striker when required.

While Liverpool turned down Remy, Chelsea later stepped in and signed the Frenchman instead.

Wilfried Bony was next up in Liverpool's search for a Suarez successor—a completely different style of centre-foward again. According to Darren Lewis of the Mirror, Bony had a reported £19 million release clause, but Liverpool failed to complete the deal again. Bony signed for Manchester City six months later for £28 million.

Clive Brunskill/Getty Images

Bony and Remy, for whatever reasons, weren't deemed suitable for Liverpool, but they ended up at the two teams who finished first and second in the Premier League. Again, whoever made the decisions not to sign these players has to be held to account and is largely responsible for the Reds' failings in 2014/15.

The player Liverpool did end up with, of course, was Mario Balotelli. Despite Rodgers himself saying just weeks earlier that he was not interested in signing the Italian.

Rodgers, according to the Guardian's Andy Hunter, was left with the option of Balotelli or Samuel Eto'o. The Liverpool boss explained:

"

We had attempts for other strikers that didn’t materialise for one reason or another so it left us right at the end of the window with a decision on whether just to go with what we had, when experience told us we were too light, or take a calculated risk on a player who has quality and then could we get it out of him consistently?

"

Richard Heathcote/Getty Images

That calculated risk failed to pay off, with Balotelli hugely unsuited to Liverpool's style of play and mustering just four games in 28 appearances in his debut season at the club.

Having signed Balotelli, plus Rickie Lambert, Rodgers then ended up playing Raheem Sterling as a centre-forward for large parts of the season.

"Look at how many games they went into this season without a striker," says Bascombe. "It caught up with them in the end."

Liverpool ultimately ended the 2014/15 Premier League season having conceded just two fewer goals than the previous campaign, but most tellingly having scored 49 goals fewer.

That failure to even remotely replace Suarez is without a doubt the biggest regret of their season.