{"id":652099,"date":"2025-12-24T08:07:14","date_gmt":"2025-12-24T08:07:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/652099\/"},"modified":"2025-12-24T08:07:14","modified_gmt":"2025-12-24T08:07:14","slug":"12-liverpool-signings-who-never-played-a-single-game","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/652099\/","title":{"rendered":"12 Liverpool signings who never played a single game"},"content":{"rendered":"

It is not easy to say no if Liverpool Football Club come calling, but since the inception of the Premier League<\/a>, several players have signed without ever making an appearance.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Jamie Carragher leads the way for the most appearances in the Premier League<\/a> of any Liverpool player in history, with 508, after playing his entire career with the Reds.<\/p>\n

Throughout the Premier League<\/a> era, Liverpool have had signings that etched their name in folklore and others who never got off the mark, such is the nature of the beast.<\/p>\n

Excluding signings intended for the youth side, 12 players have signed for the club since 1992 without ever making a competitive first-team appearance in any competition: <\/p>\n

\u2022 Michael Stensgaard<\/strong> \u2013 Signed 1994
\u2022 Stephen Pears<\/strong> \u2013 1995
\u2022 Nicky Rizzo<\/strong> \u2013 1996
\u2022 Jorgen Nielsen<\/strong> \u2013 1997
\u2022 Haukur I. Gudnason<\/strong> \u2013 1998
\u2022 Daniel Sjolund<\/strong> \u2013 2000
\u2022 Alou Diarra<\/strong> \u2013 2002
\u2022 Carl Medjani<\/strong> \u2013 2003
\u2022 David Martin<\/strong> \u2013 2006
\u2022 Alex Manninger<\/strong> \u2013 2016
\u2022 Andy Lonergan<\/strong> \u2013 2019
\u2022 Ben Davies<\/strong> \u2013 2021<\/p>\n

\"LIVERPOOL,<\/p>\n

There is a common theme when it comes to goalkeepers, with five on this list never putting on their gloves in a match for the Reds.<\/p>\n

Lonergan and Manninger were both signed as experienced third-choice goalkeepers under Jurgen Klopp<\/a>, with the remit of offering experience and a presence in training \u2013 they combined for 12 games on the bench.<\/p>\n

Nielsen, meanwhile, sat on the bench a total of 55 times without ever seeing a minute of action. He came close in 1999 after Sander Westerveld was sent off, but Liverpool had used all their changes.<\/p>\n

The most eye-catching signing story, though, goes to Pears, who was signed as a short-term solution after Stensgaard \u2013 another name on this list \u2013 dislocated his shoulder while ironing. <\/p>\n

\"LIVERPOOL,<\/p>\n

As for the most recent name supporters will recall, it is Davies. He signed after a \u00a31.6 million deal was agreed in February 2021 as an emergency centre-back during Liverpool\u2019s injury crisis.<\/p>\n

He never went on to make a competitive appearance, but was named in a matchday squad on eight occasions.<\/p>\n

Davies then signed for Sheffield United<\/a> on loan before a \u00a34 million deal was agreed with Rangers, which saw the defender finally play his first game at Anfield in 2022. <\/p>\n

Others on the list include Medjani, who later admitted that while he learned a lot in England, he regretted leaving France. Gerard Houllier was a big factor in his signing, but he was replaced by Rafa Benitez after the defender\u2019s first season.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Gudnason was an exciting 20-year-old forward when he arrived in January 1998, but injuries derailed his hopes of making his mark at Anfield and he returned to Iceland in 2000. <\/p>\n

Although none of the abovementioned players made an appearance, they can all proudly say they were a Liverpool player.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It is not easy to say no if Liverpool Football Club come calling, but since the inception of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":652100,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8815],"tags":[748,393,147841,4884,179,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-652099","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-liverpool","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-england","10":"tag-former-players","11":"tag-great-britain","12":"tag-liverpool","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115773522252347726","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/652099","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=652099"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/652099\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/652100"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=652099"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=652099"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=652099"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}