The last 8 players Liverpool broke their transfer record to sign – & how they fared
Liverpool have just broken their transfer record to secure the signing of Bayer Leverkusen midfielder Florian Wirtz, who has become their first £100million-plus signing.
Indeed, a record which was broken in the 1970s and 1980s by the signings of Kenny Dalglish and Mark Lawrenson, both for less than £1million, is now over 100 times bigger.
We have looked into the last eight Liverpool record signings, and how they fared.
Stan Collymore – £8.5million
In the summer of 1995, Liverpool paid Nottingham Forest £8.5million for Collymore’s services, after he’d scored 22 goals and registered seven assists in the Premier League the season prior.
In his first campaign as a Red, Collymore was directly involved in 25 Premier League goals. He also scored five FA Cup goals on the way to the final, which Liverpool lost to Manchester United.
The next season, Collymore scored 12 Premier League goals, and brought his tally of goals and assists in each competition for the club to 35 and 16, before moving on to Aston Villa.
Emile Heskey – £11million
The first time Liverpool paid more than £10million for a player came in 2000, when Heskey joined from Leicester.
In a little over four years with the Reds, the striker only managed one season in which he surpassed 10 Premier League goals.
In 223 games as a Liverpool player, Heskey scored 60 goals and provided 30 assists, in perhaps one of the more underwhelming record transfers for the club, though certainly not a terrible move.
Djibril Cisse – £14.5million
More iconic hairstyles you will struggle to find, and that must have bumped up Cisse’s price tag.
He looked worthy of a £14.5million transfer after notching 26 Ligue 1 goals for Auxerre in 2003-04, but for Liverpool, his form was more spread out across competitions.
In the Premier League, his best tally was nine goals, but a horrific leg injury in October 2004 left him unable to build sustained momentum in England.
After just two seasons, Cisse went on loan back to France, with Marseille, and signed permanently for them after his short-term spell there.
Fernando Torres – £20.2million
An Atletico Madrid captain at the age of 19, and a scorer of north of 10 LaLiga goals in each of the five seasons before signing for Liverpool, the Reds knew they were getting a fantastic striker in Torres.
Signed in 2007, a year later, the Liverpool striker finished third in Ballon d’Or voting, behind Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi.
Torres had scored 33 goals in all competitions in his first season as a Red, and by the end of his time there, he’d had a hand in 100 goals in 142 games.
Liverpool got a big return on Torres, selling the Spaniard to Chelsea for £50million in 2014, and while he showed flashes of quality with the Blues, it was clear his best years in England had been at Anfield.
Andy Carroll – £35million
A decent chunk of the Torres money went on Carroll, who it was hoped could have a similar impact to that of the Spanish striker.
Carroll had scored 11 goals and assisted eight more in the Premier League in the first half of 2010-11, when he was signed, but added just two more goals in a Liverpool shirt that season.
In 35 league games the following campaign, the striker scored four goals and assisted three, and was then loaned to West Ham before being sold for a loss, and in truth, a waste of money.
Mohamed Salah – £43.9million
More than six years had passed between the failure of Carroll and the supreme success of Salah, though Liverpool didn’t know it yet.
After 19 goals and 14 assists in a Roma shirt the season prior to his signing, Salah looked a promising addition, but he’d never done it in England, despite having a spell with Chelsea.
Salah’s first season allayed any fears that he couldn’t cut it in the Premier League, with a spectacular return of 32 goals and 11 assists in the league, alongside 10 Champions League goals and five assists.
The forward’s confidence has remained since then, as he’s kicked on to push himself into legendary status with Liverpool, scoring 245 goals – the third-most in club history – and registering 113 assists.
Not bad, then.
QUIZ: Can you name every player Mohamed Salah has assisted for Liverpool?
Virgil van Dijk – £75million
A different kind of player to Salah, but almost exactly as crucial in Liverpool’s period of recent success.
Already one of the best centre-backs in the league with Southampton, the Reds knew they had to have Van Dijk, and were happy to part with £75million in order to get him.
The centre-back was famously never dribbled past in 2018-19, and has proven a dominant force at the back for essentially his entire spell at Liverpool.
He’s picked up the same pieces of silverware as Salah – and was named the best player in Europe in 2019, when he was also narrowly beaten to the Ballon d’Or award by serial winner Lionel Messi.
Van Dijk has taken on the captain’s armband at Liverpool as he’s become a widely respected figure over the course of 319 games there.
Darwin Nunez – £85million
After two unbridled successes when parting with large sums, Liverpool failed to go three for three, as Nunez has been an underwhelming leader of the line at Anfield.
The Uruguayan scored 14 goals in all competitions in his first campaign, and 18 in his second.
But in his third, while Liverpool won the Premier League title, he did little to help that triumph, with five league goals coming amid a tally of just seven in all competitions.
When Nunez is inevitably let go, the Reds will lose a large sum of money.
READ NEXT: Where are they now? The 17 Liverpool players who left after winning the 2020 title
TRY A QUIZ: Can you name every German player to appear for Liverpool in the Premier League?