‘Really dangerous’… Mikel Arteta very impressed by 26-year-old striker Liverpool sold for just £6.5m

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Even someone with as brilliant of a track-record as Michael Edwards cannot be perfect all the time. The former Liverpool sporting director had a reputation for bringing in some of the best talent in world football.

From Mohamed Salah, Sadio Mane to Virgil van Dijk and many more. The list could go on for an entire article. Edwards was simply one of the best to ever do the job in this business. And it’s no surprise he is now flourishing with his own company.

But while he was mostly perfect, he did at times prove that he was fallible as well. After all, mortal humans are prone to errors. And one of the biggest errors Edwards made was to let go of a Liverpool player for just £6.5m (Liverpool ECHO) during his final year at the club.

Mikel Arteta on Taiwo Awoniyi

The player we are talking about is of course Taiwo Awoniyi. The 26-year-old spent six years at Liverpool and went on seven different loan spells before being sold to Union Berlin. Awoniyi became a star at Union Berlin. He made 25 goal contributions in his final season at the club and was subsequently sold to Nottingham Forest in the Premier League.

At Forest, he has become a key player for the club. Especially recently. In his last 15 league games, Awoniyi has found the back of the net 11 times, and registered two assists as well. In total he has averaged a goal or assist every 80 minutes in that time.

Last night, Awoniyi returned from an injury and straight away he was back among the goals for Forest finding the back of the net against Mikel Arteta’s side.

Afterwards speaking on TNT, Arteta praised Awoniyi for being a really dangerous opponent.

“He is a real threat and obviously with a deep block they defend, when there are spaces behind you, if he manages to take the first touch, he is a really dangerous player. He managed to score at the Emirates and he scored again tonight.”

It’s great to see Awoniyi thriving. The six years spent at Liverpool were clearly not in vain. But he is definitely one that got away.