Why Liverpool’s failure to land Lyon’s Nabil Fekir may not be all bad

The summer transfer window started so well for Liverpool when they signed Monaco midfielder Fabinho out of nowhere for a fee of around £40million.

Since then, the Reds have been chasing highly-rated France international Nabil Fekir from Lyon but this has not been so straightforward.

After what seemed like a breakthrough in negotiations, it was announced by the Ligue 1 side that Fekir would be staying at the club.

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This news has been hugely disappointing for Kopites everywhere, who would have seen Fekir as the ideal man to play the no.10 role previously occupied by Philippe Coutinho.

However, despite this setback, it may not be all bad that this move has not gone through given the Reds' track record with signing players from France's top flight.

Scroll down to see the players who really failed to shake the Kop after signing from Ligue 1 clubs over the years.

1999 - Vladimir Smicer

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Smicer is hardly the worst player on this list but the Czech largely failed to deliver on the potential he had after signing from Lens in June 1999.

Liverpool legend Steven Gerrard echoed this view in his first autobiography by claiming the Smicer in training was far better than the one fans saw on the pitch.

However, the midfielder's Liverpool career ended with a bang when he scored a goal in the 2005 Champions League final which saw Liverpool complete an incredible victory on penalties against AC Milan after going 3-0 down at half-time.

Smicer also scored in the shootout, saving his best performance for last which arguably made a lot of fans find it in their hearts to forgive him even though he was a generally disappointing signing.

2002 - El Hadji Diouf, Salif Diao, Bruno Cheyrou

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After Senegal's 2002 World Cup heroics, Gerard Houllier looked like a genius for snapping up Diouf and Diao for relatively cheap prices - £10m and £5m respectively.

However, they failed to live up to their expectation with Diao, who signed from Sedan, having no impact on the club's progress, while Diouf's antics put shame on Liverpool Football Club at times.

The striker, who was signed from Lens, spat at a group of Celtic fans in a UEFA Cup tie at Parkhead in 2003. He left the club in 2004 to the relief of many.

As for Cheyrou, he really failed to live up to the hype that Houllier created when the forward was bought from Lille. Houllier hinted at similarities between Cheyrou's play and that of Zinedine Zidane! Needless to say, Houllier was wrong.

2004 - Djibril Cisse

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Although he was erratic in front of goal at times, Cisse had very little luck as a Liverpool player.

The Frenchman was signed by Houllier in May 2004, but Houllier was given the chop days later and new manager Rafa Benitez did not appear to rate Cisse that highly.

Cisse then suffered a horrific leg break in a Premier League game against Blackburn in October 2004 which ruled him out for almost the rest of the 2004/05 campaign.

After that, Benitez played him on the right wing most of the time even though he was initially bought as a striker. Cisse broke his leg again in June 2006 playing for France but Liverpool were able to offload him to Marseille on loan later that summer.

There were some good moments for Cisse, however. He scored in the shootout in Liverpool's Champions League final win over AC Milan and also found the net during Liverpool's FA Cup triumph over West Ham in 2006.

2008 - David Ngog

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One French striker Benitez did rate however was Ngog, who was acquired from PSG in the summer of 2008 as back-up for the likes of Fernando Torres.

However, because of Torres' persistent injury problems, Ngog started getting more first-team opportunities when Roy Hodgson was in charge of the club.

And it looked like a good decision when the frontman started scoring a few goals in the early stages of the Reds' Europa League campaign in the 2010/11 season.

However, that was as good as it got for Ngog, who was sold to Bolton at the end of the campgin. He now plies his trade at Ross County.

2013 - Mamadou Sakho

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Sakho was a lionheart in some games, but more often he was bambi on ice whenever the ball was at his feet.

A lot of Liverpool fans will point to some big games he played his part in such as the incredible comeback win over Borussia Dortmund in the Europa League quarter-finals in 2016.

But there were many more games where he sometimes struggled to cope and it's easy to see why PSG were so willing to let the centre-back go for £18million.

The Frenchman's Liverpool career ended on a sour note when he tested positive for a fat burner which contained a banned substance in May 2016.

Reports of a fallout with manager Jurgen Klopp then emerged which eventually led to a Sakho's away from Anfield.

Reds fans will definitely be hoping that Fabinho and Fekir (if he signs) will not be joining this list!