Liverpool's Biggest Transfer Steals of the Past 10 Years
No matter where they finish in the Premier League, Liverpool are heading for a huge summer.
According to Paul Joyce of the Times (h/t Joe Rimmer of the Liverpool Echo) in March, Reds boss Jurgen Klopp will have the "largest transfer kitty in the club's history" during the offseason.
Fans want American owners Fenway Sports Group to back their manager with big-name recruits, making sure Liverpool can still compete with their heavyweight domestic rivals.
But, while money makes the Premier League world go round, and top-tier players tend to only be available at a premium, history suggests the Merseyside club have a knack of picking up bargains.
Here, with help from Transferleague.co.uk, Bleacher Report has picked out six deals from the past decade that saw Liverpool get full value for their money.
This is not necessarily about spending as little as possible but about getting the most bang for your buck.
6. Joel Matip
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The best things in life are free, according to Luther Vandross and Janet Jackson.
Liverpool fans will beg to differ, considering the club's mixed (yes, let's go with "mixed") record with Bosman signings. For every Gary McAllister, a freebie who fitted right in, there's been a Milan Jovanovic, a player who made a free transfer seem expensive.
Thankfully, Joel Matip falls into the first of those categories. Having run down his contract at previous club Schalke, the defender has adapted well to Premier League life with Liverpool.
Klopp knew the player well from his time in charge of Borussia Dortmund—and revealed before Matip even arrived at Anfield that the Reds had saved a fortune.
"If you asked in Germany what other clubs would have paid for him had he still been under contract, you can just pick a number," Klopp said after a pre-contract agreement was announced, per Paul Joyce of the Express.
According to TransferMarkt, the centre-back is worth £17 million in today's transfer market.
However, Liverpool should have no interest in profiting on a player who, at the age of 25, may not have reached his peak yet.
5. Raheem Sterling
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According to Daniel King of the Daily Mail, Liverpool saw off competition from Manchester United, Manchester City, Arsenal and Fulham to sign Raheem Sterling from Queens Park Rangers in February 2010.
The initial fee? £500,000. Admittedly, there were add-ons, but the Reds secured the 15-year-old for what turned out to be a ridiculously low sum.
Not every talented teenager fulfils their early potential (remember Cherno Samba?), but Sterling made a rapid rise through the ranks and made his first-team debut aged 17 and 107 days.
The Jamaica-born England international was a pivotal member of the Brendan Rodgers-led squad that came so close to ending Liverpool's long wait for a league title in the 2013/14 season.
Yet the following season, Anfield's latest golden boy became embroiled in a contract dispute.
Sterling insisted it wasn't about money, per Andy Hunter of the Guardian: "Never once in my life has it been about money. I talk about winning trophies throughout my career. I don't talk about how many cars I'm going to drive or how many houses I've got. I just purely want to be the best I can be."
Still, the standoff saw the relationship between the player (and his agent) and the club irrecoverably ruined.
Manchester City ponied up an initial £44 million for the disgruntled player, albeit QPR were owed a chunk, too. Liverpool played the market perfectly, buying low and selling high, but Sterling's departure left a bitter taste.
4. Daniel Sturridge
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Daniel Sturridge's future at Liverpool looks unclear, as the forward has played just 579 minutes of Premier League football this season.
Injuries are partly to blame for his lack of action, but a fit Sturridge has made just five starts, the last of them coming at Sunderland (when he found the net in a 2-2 draw) on January 2.
An amicable divorce seems to be on the cards, but the Reds cannot complain they haven't got value for money on the £12 million they paid Chelsea in January 2013.
Sturridge has scored 60 goals and provided 21 assists in 116 appearances for Liverpool, according to TransferMarkt.
According to LFCHistory.net, the England international has found the net every 0.523 games during his tenure on Merseyside. Only three forwards—Fernando Torres, Suarez and Michael Owen—have better strike rates in the Premier League era.
As Adam Bate on Sky Sports pointed out: "Sturridge's spectacular spell in the club's 2013/14 title tilt saw him score 21 goals in 29 Premier League games. No other Liverpool player has come even close to that in the three seasons since. The problem is that neither has Sturridge."
TransferMarkt values the former Chelsea player at £18.7 million. However, according to Joe Bernstein of MailOnline, Liverpool may hold out for £40 million in the summer.
3. Fernando Torres
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In hindsight, Liverpool hit the jackpot twice with Fernando Torres.
First, the Reds paid out a transfer record fee of £26.5 million to get the striker from Atletico Madrid in July 2007, with Luis Garcia also going in the other direction.
The Spaniard proved to be worth every penny, though. Torres followed in a prestigious line of Liverpool No.9s, as his physical style suited the Premier League, and he quickly became an Anfield idol.
He holds the record as the fastest Liverpool player to 50 goals, reaching the personal milestone in just his 72nd game, per LFCHistory.net.
In total, Torres scored 81 in 142 appearances in all competitions, yet his legacy with supporters will forever be tarnished by the way he slapped in a written transfer request to force a move out of the club.
Still, Liverpool managed to get Chelsea to fork out £50 million to sign the disgruntled forward in January 2011. They re-invested some of that money to sign another player on this list, too.
Torres struggled at Stamford Bridge, managing 48 goals in 182 games. He was sent out on loan to AC Milan before eventually returning home to Madrid, rejoining Atletico.
2. Luis Suarez
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The January transfer window in 2011 was a busy one for Liverpool.
Torres' acrimonious exit to Chelsea left fans fuming, as well as a hole in the forward line. The Reds played the numbers game to fill the void, buying two strikers to replace one.
Andy Carroll turned out to be a mistake—a costly mistake (£35 million) at that—as he failed to fit in at Anfield. However, the other recruit turned out to be a steal.
At the time, £23 million seemed a lot to snap up Luis Suarez. While prolific in Dutch football, Ajax had played hardball over the deal and forced the Reds to cough up a hefty fee.
"Everybody wins. Ajax played the transfer game poker very well. Liverpool have paid top whack, but they have got a striker who can play across the line," Tim Vickery told BBC Sport at the time.
The Uruguayan forward was far from perfect during his time in the Premier League—just ask Patrice Evra and Branislav Ivanovic—but he was the bad boy Liverpool fans couldn't resist loving.
Suarez scored 82 goals in 133 appearances for the English club. He managed 31 in the 2013/14 season, scooping the Player of the Year awards from both the PFA and the Football Writers' Association.
Barcelona stumped up £65 million to take the player to Spain in the summer of 2014. While they'd more than doubled their money, Liverpool lost a talismanic figure, the type who is tough to replace.
1. Philippe Coutinho
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Liverpool should thank their lucky stars Inter Milan lacked patience with Philippe Coutinho.
Per Soccerbase, the playmaker made just 15 league starts for the Serie A side. He made only one fewer during a spell on loan at Espanyol but was deemed surplus to requirements by his parent club.
"Coutinho is a very, very good player. He is still only 20 and has a big talent," Marco Branca—the man in charge of Inter Milan's transfer policy at the time—told Simon Austin of BBC Sport.
Branca was right—and that makes Inter's decision to sell the player for £8.5 million even more ridiculous. If signing Coutinho appeared a transfer gamble at the time, the Reds hit the jackpot.
The Brazil international has blossomed in England. Once part of the supporting cast, Coutinho—who was voted into the PFA Team of the Season in 2014/15—has taken over the mantle as Liverpool's star turn.
The club handed the 24-year-old a new long-term contract in January, although that hasn't stopped rumours about a move to Barcelona. Per Spanish daily Sport (h/t Uche Amako of the Express), Coutinho's agent, Kia Joorabchian, has met with representatives from the Spanish giants.
Any sale would see Liverpool make a huge profit on their initial outlay, but Coutinho feels like a favourite T-shirt: While a risky purchase initially, you've loved it ever since and are loath to see it go.
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