Signings that worked better then you expected

I think people love discussing transfers that turned out to be a disaster. Think Balotelli.....but what signings have the club made that you initially thought why, why have ee signed that, but actually turned out to be a great signing?

Gary Mac more Due to age than quality Houliier said he was most inspired  signing

I certainly go for Milner, signed on a "free" from City. He has played his part in the side and success under Jürgen Klopp.

Matip. Despite his frailness was a great pickup for free.

Klavan. Not "great" but very serviceable while we improved depth

We don't know it yet but I reckon Thiago could become top of the props,(propositions) Andy Robertson holds that distinction at the mo, imo and probably  took it from Jimmy, 

We also need to consider Mane, Mo & Bobby all have exceeded expectations under Jürgen, Virgil too, what of Fabinho,  he has surprised a few I bet, including myself, nobody except maybe Jürgen & Pep knew just how good he is/was, this is all recent of course, the Klopp era,

Old Baldy head belongs obviously in the Houlier era,  but what of those from Rafa's time like Xabi Alonso,

f***in hell Brian,  you've opened a right can of worms,  got a fookin headache brewing now 😁


                                     YNWA

Have to say the skipper. I had barely heard of him when we signed him (and my father in law is Sunderland to the bone) and he was much maligned for so many years but he has blossomed into a fine player and an excellent Captain.

Milner is another good shout. I was chuffed to bits when we signed him. He has been superb, love his versatility and his fantastic attitude.

Going back a bit further I can remember as a kid being distraught when we sold Rush. Couldn’t get my head around it and then signed the spitting image of the lad from Oxford United And I thought he can’t replace a Liveepool legend but what a fookin player Aldo was!

Loads, but who can honestly say they expected that Scottish lad to become the best left back in the world? Shows you class managers and scouts see stuff we don’t and are not just simply people who chose a formation.

A signing who I thought was going to be absolute pants and completely took me by surprise was Steve Finnan. I'm not talking superstar here but when we signed him I thought "for f**k sake" and then actually thought the guy was solid and brilliant.  Another was Craig Bellamy.  I absolutely ended up loving that crazy fooker. Plenty more but those two came to mind straight away.

Milner! Suarez...

Good shout on Steve Finnan.

Another one that I was skeptical of was Stephan Henchoz. Blackburn had just been relegated and it looked to me like agents taking care of agents, but  he was very strong for three of four seasons. He put some top line strikers from around England and Europe in his back pocket on certain nights.

Injuries kind of did him in his final couple of seasons, but he was a good signing his first few years.

Ray Kennedy.he was converted from striker to midfield and was a revelation.

How about Kevin Keegan who was signed from Scunthorpe, certainly made a massive impact, especially in partnership with John Toshack.

Like others have mentioned, Gary Mac would have to be right up there. Always laugh thinking about what the reaction would have been like if the internet was as prominent then as it is now. 35 year old fella from Coventry on a free, Twitter would have had a meltdown

Suppose you could probably also name more or less the whole current squad / first team as they've all gone on to exceed expectations

Kyrgiakos would be another who I expected next to nothing from but went on to do pretty well. Best summed up in his song which was something along the lines of "We can't pronounce his surname so we just call him the Greek, we bought him as a backup but he's playing every week" 

Good shout on Steve Finnan.

Another one that I was skeptical of was Stephan Henchoz. Blackburn had just been relegated and it looked to me like agents taking care of agents, but  he was very strong for three of four seasons. He put some top line strikers from around England and Europe in his back pocket on certain nights.

Injuries kind of did him in his final couple of seasons, but he was a good signing his first few years.

Loved Henchoz. I remembered a rumour that we only moved him on because big Sami Hyypia was doing a line with his missus. Probably no truth in it at all obviously.

I remember we signed Rob Jones and he went straight into the team v utd, cleaned Giggs out and went on to a gem until injury ruined his career.

Less of an example is Salah....I thought we have Mane, Bobby, Coutinho wheres he going to fit? He failed at Chelsea and were signing him off the back of a good season in Rome.....man was my face red

Another fine player signed was Ray Clemence also from Scunthorpe, we could sure do with a back up keeper of his calibre in the squad at the present time ! btw what a great topic to debate.

Michael Edwards. Little did I know that he could sell anything to everybody and we’ll pay him good money for it.

Robertson from recent times. Left back had been a problem for a decade for us - never would have thought an £8m player from relegated Hull would fix that. Not only that but he's now the best in his position in the world.

I might be alone in this but was expecting good things from Robbo (not quite the level he is but I was excited about him). Could be that Moreno was the alternative. Or that I’m Scottish.

If we’re not bringing price in to it, I’d have to say Mane. Obviously a bargain at £30 odd million but still a fair chunk of cash. I remember thinking what a waste, another mid-table signing. Was adamant that I did not want him here. Man was I proven wrong. Honestly I think he is the best player in the league and think he is arguably the most important part of our team (Virgil and Becker make a good case to be fair). Don’t think it’s any coincidence that he was missing in the 7-2 demolition the other week and the only one of the 3 involved in the 4-0 destruction of Barca.

Not to get carried away but I would die for him.

Wasn't expecting Alonso to be as good as he turned out to be when we signed him. 

More recently Robbo and Fabinho.  Mention Fabinho because I didn't hold out too much hope as he had come the French league and I don't think it is one of the more successful leagues exporting into the Prem.

Bri beat me too it!

Rob Jones would of been a superb full back if it wasn't for shin splints. Still can't believe Evo shifted him to left back just so he could play Jase the Ace.

I might be alone in this but was expecting good things from Robbo (not quite the level he is but I was excited about him). Could be that Moreno was the alternative. Or that I’m Scottish.

If we’re not bringing price in to it, I’d have to say Mane. Obviously a bargain at £30 odd million but still a fair chunk of cash. I remember thinking what a waste, another mid-table signing. Was adamant that I did not want him here. Man was I proven wrong. Honestly I think he is the best player in the league and think he is arguably the most important part of our team (Virgil and Becker make a good case to be fair). Don’t think it’s any coincidence that he was missing in the 7-2 demolition the other week and the only one of the 3 involved against the 4-0 destruction of Barca.
Not to get carried away but I would die for him.

Was same about Robbo had already seen him a few times and could see a player there

Jimmy Case - explosive midfield terrier in the mould of Graeme Souness, bought from South Liverpool and what a player he was for us.

Phil Neal (Zico) great player and still the most decorated player Liverpool's ever had (I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong)

Big Sami would be up there.
I agree with the shouts for Robertson. He was always great on FM so I had hopes but he’s immense now...

I remember us signing David Speedie many moons ago and thinking wtf (or whatever the equivalent was at that time). He did well. Scored against United in his debut and I think averaged one in two.

Alan Hansen cost merely £100,000 and claimed that he was just part of the Liverpool 'tax spend' money that if not spent on players would end up being paid in tax. I don't remember hearing about the signing at the time and had no expectations, it certainly worked out well...



Phil Neal is another bargain - £66,000 in '74, bought with a view to replacing Lawler at left back, ended up doing rather nicely on the right... Not a great fanfare about his signing at the time.


Does Steve Heighway count? Signed as an amateur from Skelmersdale, not a name known to many at the time.

Some surprising shouts here for different reasons.

Surprised people saying Finnan and Gary Mac (despite his age), because both had performed well at their clubs previously and were solid pro’s in my opinion. Didn’t really have any doubts about either.

Can’t honestly believe somebody has said krygiakos. Surely that’s a wind up. He’s one of the worst centre halves I’ve ever seen play for us.

Agree with most that it’s Robertson in recent times. Mainly because left back had been a big issue for 10+ years and we signed an unknown kid from relegated Hull. What a signing though. What a player.

Agree with the mane shout too. I also thought it was another case of over spending on mid table dross. I too think he’s the best player in the league and our most important player. I just love him.

Is crouch worth a shout? Always thought he was a bit of a donkey before joining us but it was only until his time at Liverpool I appreciated what a good footballer he actually was. Very under rated.

Heskey too perhaps? Wasn’t particularly overjoyed when we signed him either but he brought the best out of owen and was a big part of our success under houllier.

Recently I would say Mane who was a decent enough player but given how the other players we signed from Southampton (Lovren, Lallana, Lambert) never were impressive I figure from that trend plus what I seen from him he would be overpaid average attacker but after that first game vs Arsenal boy was I wrong.

Masherano, Alonso, Crouch and many more. Most recent, Robbo obviously and Alisson too because I knew he was a good keeper but not this good.

Can’t honestly believe somebody has said krygiakos. Surely that’s a wind up. He’s one of the worst centre halves I’ve ever seen play for us.

Heskey too perhaps? Wasn’t particularly overjoyed when we signed him either but he brought the best out of owen and was a big part of our success under houllier.

Kyrgiakos was decent for us and even became a bit of a cult hero at one point, mustn't have cost us any more than £1M. He exceeded my expectations anyway

Heskey was great but he was our record signing for about 4 or 5 years until Cisse came in. Certainly didn't disappoint like, but there was a lot of hype around him at the time we signed him

I remember us signing David Speedie many moons ago and thinking wtf (or whatever the equivalent was at that time).

Kenny's last LFC signing.  Scored against the Mancs and then Everton! Legend!

Some surprising shouts here for different reasons.

Surprised people saying Finnan and Gary Mac (despite his age), because both had performed well at their clubs previously and were solid pro’s in my opinion. Didn’t really have any doubts about either.

Can’t honestly believe somebody has said krygiakos. Surely that’s a wind up. He’s one of the worst centre halves I’ve ever seen play for us.

Agree with most that it’s Robertson in recent times. Mainly because left back had been a big issue for 10+ years and we signed an unknown kid from relegated Hull. What a signing though. What a player.

Agree with the mane shout too. I also thought it was another case of over spending on mid table dross. I too think he’s the best player in the league and our most important player. I just love him.

Is crouch worth a shout? Always thought he was a bit of a donkey before joining us but it was only until his time at Liverpool I appreciated what a good footballer he actually was. Very under rated.

Heskey too perhaps? Wasn’t particularly overjoyed when we signed him either but he brought the best out of owen and was a big part of our success under houllier.

That is a fair shout on Finnan (who I "amen'd" before). I think it speaks more to the old Watergate question "What did (I) know about him and when did I know it?" Revisiting his online bio, I see he played for Keegan at Fulham and was sought after by many top clubs before he decided on us. I just wasn't up to speed on him at that point so had a big question mark when I heard his name announced. Late 90s and early oughties is when my fanaticism really kicked in and we were just starting to get regular doses of information over here (before that I was listening to short wave radio and scraping the agate section of The Times of London at libraries for news - I kid you not).

Some surprising shouts here for different reasons.

Surprised people saying Finnan and Gary Mac (despite his age), because both had performed well at their clubs previously and were solid pro’s in my opinion. Didn’t really have any doubts about either.

Can’t honestly believe somebody has said krygiakos. Surely that’s a wind up. He’s one of the worst centre halves I’ve ever seen play for us.

Agree with most that it’s Robertson in recent times. Mainly because left back had been a big issue for 10+ years and we signed an unknown kid from relegated Hull. What a signing though. What a player.

Agree with the mane shout too. I also thought it was another case of over spending on mid table dross. I too think he’s the best player in the league and our most important player. I just love him.

Is crouch worth a shout? Always thought he was a bit of a donkey before joining us but it was only until his time at Liverpool I appreciated what a good footballer he actually was. Very under rated.

Heskey too perhaps? Wasn’t particularly overjoyed when we signed him either but he brought the best out of owen and was a big part of our success under houllier.

Had no doubts about Mane watched hime tear us one and others Mcallister was 35 Yr old playing for Coventry pretty sure more than a few raised their eyebrows

Big Sami would be up there.
I agree with the shouts for Robertson. He was always great on FM so I had hopes but he’s immense now...

I remember us signing David Speedie many moons ago and thinking wtf (or whatever the equivalent was at that time). He did well. Scored against United in his debut and I think averaged one in two.

His two in the derby were better, even celebrating in front of the blueshit in the anny rd, then claiming he didn't know which was the home end bit

Can’t honestly believe somebody has said krygiakos. Surely that’s a wind up. He’s one of the worst centre halves I’ve ever seen play for us.

He was still better than Bjorn Tore Kvarme and Frode Kippe!!

Titi Camara, absolutely brilliant and was criminally cast aside for Heskey imo.

Kyrgiakos was decent for us and even became a bit of a cult hero at one point, mustn't have cost us any more than £1M. He exceeded my expectations anyway

Heskey was great but he was our record signing for about 4 or 5 years until Cisse came in. Certainly didn't disappoint like, but there was a lot of hype around him at the time we signed him

Kyrgiakos and decent should never be in the same sentence unless it’s ‘kyrgiakos is far from decent’. An absolute donkey who was terrible. One of the worst footballers I’ve ever seen play for us. As a season ticket holder, I can say with huge confidence he was never any sort of cult hero for us and I remember very well with the crowd, fans in the boozer, phone ins and so on always talking about how sh*te he was constantly.

I do remember, however, a nasty challenge he made in a derby game (was it on Fellaini?) and that got a good few cheers. So maybe that’s what you’re referring to. Also, because he was so sh*t, it brought a bit of a comedy value where some may have had a soft spot for him, like with biscan for example. Doesn’t change the fact he was absolutely turd though.

As for heskey, yes we spent money on him, but that’s not what the subject topic is about (suarez and torres were big money signings and still surpassed expectation). He was a 1 goal in 4 game striker at Leicester so for a club like ours who have been spoilt with amazing forwards over the years with fantastic goal records, I can’t say I was jumping with joy over signing him. Perhaps you were but I don’t recall many reds buzzing over him at all and I don’t remember any hype about it Emile Heskey. We also smashed our transfer record on Andy Carroll and there was no hype around him either.

Had no doubts about Mane watched hime tear us one and others Mcallister was 35 Yr old playing for Coventry pretty sure more than a few raised their eyebrows

Ive seen loads of players have a good game against us or against other clubs in the top 6. Doesn’t really mean much though. We signed Stewart Downing for 20m or so after he was Villas player of the season and I think he might have got most assists in the league that year. And he turned out to be sh*te which many predicted.

What separates a good player to a great one is consistency. Even the biggest Sadio Mane fan wouldn’t have predicted he would be performing at the levels he is now week in, week out. He has gone up several levels since his Southampton days. He hasn’t just come here and done well, he’s gone on to be the best LW in the world and if anybody says they could see that potential in him while he was at Southampton then I’d say they were telling porkies. 

Ive seen loads of players have a good game against us or against other clubs in the top 6. Doesn’t really mean much though. We signed Stewart Downing for 20m or so after he was Villas player of the season and I think he might have got most assists in the league that year. And he turned out to be sh*te which many predicted.

What separates a good player to a great one is consistency. Even the biggest Sadio Mane fan wouldn’t have predicted he would be performing at the levels he is now week in, week out. He has gone up several levels since his Southampton days. He hasn’t just come here and done well, he’s gone on to be the best LW in the world and if anybody says they could see that potential in him while he was at Southampton then I’d say they were telling porkies.

Yes they would but no one has said that have they

Yes they would but no one has said that have they

You said you had no doubts about mane which seems a little strange considering he wasn’t playing anywhere near the level he is now.

As for Gary Mac, the only thing that raised an eyebrow at the time was his age. He was a great player for both Leeds and Coventry.

You said you had no doubts about mane which seems a little strange considering he wasn’t playing anywhere near the level he is now.

As for Gary Mac, the only thing that raised an eyebrow at the time was his age. He was a great player for both Leeds and Coventry.

Correct I had no doubts where we were at that time and his previous performances against us and others that he didn't raise my eyebrows like the original post stated . As for Gary Mac yes there were plenty of eyebrows raised due to his age and nothing to prove

Correct I had no doubts where we were at that time and his previous performances against us and others that he didn't raise my eyebrows like the original post stated . As for Gary Mac yes there were plenty of eyebrows raised due to his age and nothing to prove

Fair enough mate. My memories of signing Mane were that a lot of reds, myself included, thought we had over spent massively on him. Regarding the topic name, I think he’s more than a fair shout to include because I don’t think anybody could have imagined him being the player he has turned out to be.

Gary Mac didn’t surprise me as being a good signing at the time. He was always going to come in and play a squad player type role and offer us some experience. He was a top pro and a very good player for his previous clubs so it didn’t raise any eyebrows from me particularly.

Fair enough mate. My memories of signing Mane were that a lot of reds, myself included, thought we had over spent massively on him. Regarding the topic name, I think he’s more than a fair shout to include because I don’t think anybody could have imagined him being the player he has turned out to be.

Gary Mac didn’t surprise me as being a good signing at the time. He was always going to come in and play a squad player type role and offer us some experience. He was a top pro and a very good player for his previous clubs so it didn’t raise any eyebrows from me particularly.

Fair enough obviously all about opinion but your are right even though I had no doubts about Mane you are right I never imagined he would become the player he has would walk into any team in the world.

Rush and Keegan were both signed as having the potential to do well but I bet even Sir Bill & Sir Bob were surprised about how great they actually turned out to be. Rush didn't score in his first 8/9 games and he very nearly got cast aside.Keegan got off to a great start and went on to even greater heights.

Recent times maybe Mo, didn't work out at Chelsea but he has done better than anyone really expected. Mane as well. But Klopp's signing of Robbo is the best in terms of rapid improvement and doing better than anyone expected.

Coutinho worth a shout? Came here as an unknown kid from inter for less than 9m and a few years later we sell him for 140m which allowed us to transform our team into world champions. I was a bit pissed off the way coutinho went about things but it all worked out pretty well in the end so cheers Phil.

In the same window we got sturridge for 12m too. He had struggled at city and Chelsea and had little to show for himself other than a decent loan spell with Bolton. But that season we nearly won the league with Brendan he was as good as anybody in Europe. Shame injury ruined Sturridge because he’s one of the best finishers I’ve seen.

Coutinho worth a shout? Came here as an unknown kid from inter for less than 9m and a few years later we sell him for 140m which allowed us to transform our team into world champions. I was a bit pissed off the way coutinho went about things but it all worked out pretty well in the end so cheers Phil.

In the same window we got sturridge for 12m too. He had struggled at city and Chelsea and had little to show for himself other than a decent loan spell with Bolton. But that season we nearly won the league with Brendan he was as good as anybody in Europe. Shame injury ruined Sturridge because he’s one of the best finishers I’ve seen.

Yep good shout on Phil . Sturridge funny one I never have much recollection  of him other than that at Bolton where he was brilliant no doubt both signings quality in terms of what we got back

Kenny's last LFC signing.  Scored against the Mancs and then Everton! Legend!

I was at anfield when he scored a couple against Everton. I think molby scores the other but recently I read that with VaR the molby goal would have been credited to speedie so he was denied a hat-rick
....

Mascherano. 

No expectations of him when he arrived.

Never realise how good someone was till there gone.

Broke down attack after attack and took his game to even another level at Barca.

Salah and Mané turned out alright...

I’ve been holding back and I think it’s got to be Robbo.

When he signed, it felt like “what? how dare you sign an unknown LB for only £8m from a relegated side. So much for our ambition. It should have been some rated Mendy or Sessegnon brand player.”

Well, the £8m unknown LB from a relegation side became world class. Robbo is the one that makes it for me for these reasons.