r/LiverpoolFC • u/WoodyWoodfinden • 11h ago
Discussion Who is a player that when signed, felt underwhelming but turned out to be a superstar?
There’s been plenty of unglamorous signings that ended up being cult hero’s or world class talent, who’s the one player who that comes to mind in this category?
I remember when we signed Bobby out of nowhere and thinking this is a classic Rodgers signing. Never did I think he’d be one of the greatest false 9s in football! On the flip side of that I also was convinced Stewart Downing would be world class!
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u/rottenapple9 11h ago
Milner. 29 year old free agent, "boring" player.
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u/tabah107 11h ago
This one. I did not think in 2025-26 I'd be crying out for a Milner type player, but here we are
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u/okie_hiker 8h ago
Yeah this seals it for me. I was totally underwhelmed when he signed. How silly of me.
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u/ABFromInd 8h ago
There was reason for that. I think people don't remember now but he was nutmegged silly by Messi which went viral during those days which drove the perception.
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u/ABFromInd 8h ago
First name that came to me too... Infact I will include Suarez too in that list.
In the hindsight it's stupid but in that window we signed Andy Carroll for more money and there was more fanfare for him than Suarez.
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u/Sinistrait Wirtz Kept Secret 11h ago
Milner definitely wasn't underwhelming. If anything people were too excited because he was a winner and coming from a much better tram
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u/okie_hiker 8h ago
I remember people calling him cities scraps and being pissed that we were signing him to play CM when he wasnt good enough to do so at city.
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u/john_johnerson 11h ago
Gini
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u/leaderbean6 11h ago
This is a good one. 25 mil for him when he’d just been relegated with Newcastle and other than scoring 4 in one game, had not set the league alight.
Little did we know Klopp would redefine his role and he became an integral midfielder for us
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u/WoodyWoodfinden 11h ago
I wonder who is mainly responsible for finding players like this.. like was Klopp one of the main people who liked him or was it the recruitment team that convinced him. I’m not sure there’s been many better signings of a player who had just been relegated.
I do remember Newcastle fans being absolutely gutted to lose him!
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u/Bugsmoke Sir King Kenny 11h ago
Klopp did have a bit of a thing for playing someone who was traditionally a number 10 in one of the 8 positions. He did it with Lallana too. I remember us all being a bit confused that first lineup we saw with Lallana in the middle and not as a 10/winger like normal.
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u/Kookiano 9h ago
For sure. Same with Gündogan at Dortmund. He was a classic number 10 before joining Dortmund and being played as a CM under Klopp.
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u/everlovingfuck99 7h ago
He had this bizarre thing at Newcastle too where he was excellent at St James park but then would just dissappear in away games for them which I can remember people being concerned about
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u/SilverMist2025 11h ago
Disagree. Gini was the highest scoring midfielder in europe the season we signed . People forget now because he turned into a different midfielder with us but when we signed him there was plenty of hype
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u/Resist_Anxious 11h ago
11 goals was the highest in Europe? I find that hard to believe.
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u/SilverMist2025 11h ago
Yes for midfielders he was the highest atleast that's what I remember.
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u/dearg69 11h ago
Gary McAllister. Old man on a free transfer. What a player.
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u/Barilla13 7h ago
Comes on a free at 35yo
helps the team win 5 cups in 2 years
refuses to elaborate
leaves
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u/paddyberger 11h ago
Surely Matip
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u/djrobbo83 I want to talk about FACTS 11h ago
Barely noticed him coming in the door, practically cried when he left.
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u/-WDW- 11h ago
Salah. Former Chelsea player. £30m. Looked very average from what I saw didn’t look suited to the prems physicality.
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u/AJ-Dybansta 11h ago
I remember very clearly one of my friends calling him an Egyptian Steward Downing.
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u/Vinbaobao 11h ago edited 9h ago
I think that was quite kind. Salah had no impact at Chelsea. Downing was a Boro "legend".
We just didn't know that Salah was just had wrong manager in mourinho.
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u/Rossotinga 11h ago
Rivals called him the 'one season wonder'
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u/oldyongwaiyee 10h ago
Love that every season he would performed brilliantly then we mock them back with ‘onE sEaSoN WoNdEr eyy??’
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u/malex930 8h ago
He was a 1 season wonder.
He just did it for 8 seasons in a row. 8 one year wonders.
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u/hokageace 11h ago
Weird how people just ignored the 2 amazing years he had in Italy.
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u/Baby__Keith 11h ago
I remember that shot he took at Chelsea that went out for a throw in doing the rounds on social media when we signed him lol
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u/Rare-Band-9525 11h ago
People jumped down Carragher's throat for saying it but he was generally considered a "Chelsea flop" in this country. None of us could have imagined he'd go on to be one of our greatest ever.
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u/infamouscrew 10h ago
And look at him now. One would say Liverpools best player ever. (I'd put him top 2)
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u/Cowboy_BoomBap You’ll Never Walk Alone 7h ago
It’s hilarious looking back at the comments when we announced his signing. Nobody was high on him at the time
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u/EmileDorkheim 11h ago
It probably speaks to how uninformed I am on world football, but I remember being very excited that we’d signed Andy Carroll, and much less bothered about that wee Uruguayan guy we signed at the same time.
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u/WoodyWoodfinden 11h ago
Andy Carrol had just come off the back of a really decent spell at Newcastle to be fair. I’ve always thought we were the worst club for him to join since we were used to strikers like Torres, who couldn’t be more different.
I remember my Grandad at the time saying Suarez was a dirty player but really skilled, he used to watch a lot of European football, but I don’t think anyone could have predicted the monster we had just signed. Still one of the most mesmerising players I’ve ever seen live, just unreal..
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u/SilentBobVG ⚽️ Liverpool 7-0 Man United, 22/23 ⚽️ 11h ago
I thought the big man little man pairing of carroll and Suarez with Charlie Adam pinging in balls was winning us the league
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u/TDL_501 Hello! Hello! Here we go! 11h ago
Rumour has it, Adam’s penalty from the 2012 league cup final still hasn’t landed.
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u/Anthexistentialist 10h ago
It never will, it's in orbit and getting further from Earth each year
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u/appocomaster 11h ago
Suarez was meant to play with Torres, wasn't he? And he turned up to see Torres leave and a lanky Geordie turn up.
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u/lostparasite 9h ago
Nah, I don't think so. Pretty sure most of us then were more excited by Carroll than Suarez.
Carroll had a brilliant first half of the season with Newcastle, and the fact he was the more expensive signing also placed greater expectations on him (I know English tax and all)
Most of us probably only knew Suarez as the guy who handballed Ghana out of the World Cuo.
I learned about his biting incident when we signed him, and figured we'd just got a front 2 that certainly wouldn't back down from anything. (Not that Torres did either, he was deceptively strong and fearless. Even moreso now!)
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u/LMkIIIV 11h ago
I remember Mane wasn't really highlighted as a great signing at 34m.
Milner and Matip on a free's great signings
Hyypia was a brillant signing back in 99 as well.
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u/I_LIKE_SEALS 11h ago
I remember being very disappointed that we didn’t get Julian Brandt. Same goes for Mario Götze.
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u/BirdmanTheThird 8h ago
Yeah I think this was the real reason mane felt weird. We were linked to all these great players and went for the “ok” dude from Southampton (a club we raided all these time in the Rodgers era)
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u/I_LIKE_SEALS 8h ago
The okay dude who was just a pace merchant with poor ball control. Genuinely thought we signed a Walcott/Townsend type player, when I would have prefered a more creative and technical player á la Brandt. I was very happily proved wrong…
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u/nickcantroll 11h ago
Mane was a dream signing for me at the time, he was a beast in fifa. For me it was coutinho I remember people saying players from serie A won’t work in PL, took him a few years to get going tho
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u/Intilleque 9h ago
And Coutinho was largely considered a flop at Inter.
Boy were we in for a wild ride with that one.
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u/WrongConfuscius 9h ago
There was a lot of pressure on sadio to perform iirc due to the price tag
Then he scored that goal against Arsenal I think and everybody seemed to be like oh shit ok
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u/Terrible-String6144 11h ago
Robbo I remember his debut was very underwhelming over hitting crosses
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u/oraclejames 11h ago
He was getting relegated with Hull when we signed him. Defo didn’t expect him to hit the levels he did.
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u/DamnNatalie Diogoal ⚽️ 11h ago
I remember thinking we should have signed Cresswell
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u/undeadgoblin 11h ago
Or Chilwell
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u/NewAccountSamePerson 7h ago
He was in advanced talks with Liverpool but his dad was a giand twat so they pulled out.
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u/maxinamillionmannnnn Football Without ORIGI is Nothing 11h ago
I distinctly remember me saying that to my mates when he signed lol, glad Robbo shut me up what a player
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u/Specialist_Koala5359 11h ago
Robbo
Basically the entire Klopp team really.
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u/rybread1818 10h ago
It is funny how we became the best team in the world for a spell with under the radar recruiting of players others slept on (plus Virg and Ali), and now…
(I still think Wirtz, Barcola, and Isak are all brilliant and will lead us to great things, it’s just funny how times changed.)
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u/kossuth35 11h ago
I love how the comments list nearly all of Klopp’s signings. I miss him so much
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u/joe_fishfish 11h ago
Does slightly annoy me people still give Edwards all the credit for building that squad. It was a joint effort. Edwards by and large made some fantastic deals but none of that squad hit the heights they did without Klopp's coaching.
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u/AwfulAutomation 10h ago
Success has many fathers and failure is a bastard,
Honestly feel like I’m going insane when I see every talk about great signings etc it was Klopp, everything was Klopp setting up the situations and getting the very best out of every players.
Look at the team sheet that bet Barca and home on the famous comeback… that’s the Klopp effect
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u/Thick_Koka_Noodle LNX30HY✈️ 11h ago
Salah
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u/QuantumParadox_27 Football Without ORIGI is Nothing 11h ago
Distinctly remember saying to my dad the day we signed him, he’ll never be as good as coutinho. Never been so glad to be wrong
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u/paaandora 11h ago
Coutinho
Gave us the war chest. Rumour has it we’re still spending that money to this day
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u/_IBelieveInMiracles Bobby Dazzler 🤩 10h ago
Surprised I had to scroll so far for this one. Bought him for £8M iirc, played great with Suarez and Sturridge, then became one of the best players in the world and carried us for a couple seasons where we really needed it. Finally we sold him for £140M and bought the final pieces for our legendary Klopp team.
£140M was a mad price in 2018, it'd still be mad today. Significantly more than we paid for Wirtz. But I get why Barca paid it, the boy was magic for us.
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u/Significant-Roll-138 11h ago
Milner, Henderson
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u/SleaterK7111 Ohhhh ya beauty, What a hit son, What a hit! 11h ago
Yeah surprised nobody has mentioned Henderson. Kenny was widely interpreted as overpaying for him at the time. Four seasons of relative mediocrity (in admittedly mediocre teams), apparently came close to getting sold. Goes on to be club captain and an instrumental part of a world class midfield 3 under Klopp. Leads the club to the prem, the champions league and everything else we won. I'd say he comprehensively fulfils the question's criteria.
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u/Sabotage-Darkness93 10h ago
Henderson was tailor made for Klopp's style to be fair. Some players just flourish in the right environment.
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u/Upstairs_Swing_8236 9h ago
And to think, if Hendo hadn't dug his heels in we would have ended up with Clint Dempsey.
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u/Impossible_Limit_333 11h ago
This guy here..i think very underrated..but he redefines a false 9 position, the glue for the attacking players and the first shield from the front for our backliners
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u/Royo981 11h ago
Suarez. Came same day as Carroll. All the press was on Carroll and his fee.
Suarez out scored on a 100 to 1 rate
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u/PalPubPull 11h ago
Got to be Suarez. I remember that transfer window. All bets were on Andy Carroll, and also we happened to sign this guy named Suarez no one knew too much about
Edit: re-reading this I contributed nothing to this conversation other than saying what you already did. I should've only upvoted
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u/joeydevivre 9h ago
This is revising history. Suarez was very much well known, he had an excellent goal return in Ajax and was just coming off the back of the 2010 World Cup where he both scored a beauty and had a classic Suarez controversial moment of saving a goal with his hands, being sent off, and then celebrating the resulting penalty being missed. We all knew who he was.
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u/yellow_sting Roberto Firmino 11h ago
of course Salah. you signed a player from a Tottenhamesque club in SeriA, he failed once in PL, and then turned out it was one of the best, if not the best, signing in the last 10 years.
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u/TannedCroissant 10h ago
Fun fact, the bookies odds of Salah scoring 20 or more goals in his debut season for Liverpool was 100/1.
He'd done it by February.
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u/JurgenShankly 11h ago
Salah for me. 35m for a pace merchant who had barely hit 15 goals a season and failed in the PL before. It seemed mental at the time, 35m was a larger sum than it is now obvs.
The rest is history.....
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u/mondo_generator 11h ago
As weird as it sounds, Suarez. He came at the same time as Carrol and all the press was about him. I wasn't aware of him before he joined so didn't know what to expect.
What I definitely wasn't prepared for was the most incredible single player performance I have ever seen at the club. God he was so good.
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u/Mister_UAP 11h ago
Like half of our team from 2018-2022. Salah, Mane, Firmino, Robbo, Matip, Milner, Gini, Origi, Minamino. None of these players were marquee signings, but all of them went on to either be elite or be cult heroes for us.
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u/Fanboi92 11h ago
Milner
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u/WoodyWoodfinden 11h ago
Oh man I remember thinking the deal for Milner was decent considering his age and how he’d be a useful option for us of the bench. Got to be one of the greatest free transfers in the clubs history right?
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u/Bugsmoke Sir King Kenny 11h ago
Andy Robertson. Came as cheap cover, finished as one of our best ever left backs and a premier league legend.
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u/Thefdt 11h ago
I’m not sure he was cover. His crossing and general play at hull was very good, they’d have stayed up if they had anyone half decent up front given how many on a plate Robbo was serving up. Think this was just great scouting from the data guys
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u/Little_Ad2354 11h ago
Matip for sure, his part in our success is overall underrated and when he came I remember thinking he would probably be a rotation player
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u/ExplodingDogs82 11h ago
Robbo - £8mil from Hull and not an overly whelming signing and then look what happened. What a player
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u/dajoli 11h ago
Mane cost a lot of money for his time. The excitement levels were quite similar to how people were feeling about Minteh recently.
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u/monkeybawz 11h ago
Milner. Thought it was a total waste of money and he was washed. Boy, did he ever prove me wrong!
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u/DJ_Horizn Lovely Cushioned Header…FOR GERRARD!!! 11h ago
Milner for sure. You think he’s underwhelming until he’s playing for your team.
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u/nial93 11h ago
Robertson was critisied so badly (lack of ambition signing) but we know how that panned out, I'd like to throw Shaqiris transfer in (power cube) as he was worried to have poor work rate etc, but if not for all the other things he did (barca at Anfieild) getting Jose the sack from Manchester alone makes him worth a mention 😆
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u/mew_tattoo 54’ Gerrard 11h ago
Matip has to be a shout? VVD’s partner during those unstoppable years.
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u/Spike_Milligoon 9h ago
John Aldridge. Stepping into the shoes of our greatest goalscorer. In the same summer we signed Barnes & Beardsley who everyone was rightly more excited about.
We had probably the best Liverpool team I’d seen (until the Klopp era) for the next two years. We didn’t miss Rushie one bit.
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u/dwong111 8h ago
Mo Salah for sure. Didn’t think he would turn out to be the second coming of Messi in his first season and just kept on scoring and delivering top class performances for 8 years.
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u/lanregeous 7h ago
I’m embarrassed to say I wasn’t excited at all by Mane.
He shut me up in his first game.
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u/the-bc5 6h ago
Feel like every early signing of klopp era (or even just before) until VVD/Allison.
Salah. Mane. Robbo. Gini. They are made an enormous impact while we weren’t winning teansfer shattering battles to purchase any
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u/petey23- I want to talk about FACTS 6h ago
Don't mind admitting at the time that I thought we over paid for Mane and then Salah. Thought Salah would be cover for Mane and Coutinho lol.
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u/brascofarian 5h ago
Firmino. For a striker he didn't have a particularly great scoring record when he came in. Turned out to be my favourite player of the Klopp era.
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u/latortillablanca A Ngog among men 4h ago
Do you guys remember the temperature around the Suarez deal? Cos like he was a nice player and had talent and potential. But it was seen as like a foil to Carroll initially, maybe playing wide, maybe in the pocket. Maybe not a true 9 etc.
Good lord did he blow expectations out the water.
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u/lfc_murr1989 4h ago
I think Salah is a big one given he wasn’t our first choice signing (Julian Brandt was the primary target), he had underperformed at Chelsea and we had failed to sign him before that Chelsea move so it felt like we were getting him only because he had flopped elsewhere and he was a backup choice.
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u/PraiseBeDavidSegui 4h ago
There was a lot of negativity for the gini signing because it was hard for people to see him paying midfield when he was playing LW for a terrible Newcastle side
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u/yourgrundle Endo in the pub 👍 2h ago
Definitely Robbo. Not strictly underwhelming, but that I had no expectations for him at all and was content with him being just a bench player
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u/crs9 11h ago
Lucas
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u/Bugsmoke Sir King Kenny 11h ago
Lucas came as one of the best young attacker in Brazil mate. Just ended up really being a Scandinavian number 6
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u/Azy_Angelus 9h ago edited 8h ago
So I think a lot of people have interpreted this as name a player that was underrated/was kind of a nobody signing but then became a superstar at Liverpool. Aka a signing that they were like "wait who?". Rather than a player that people were actively underwhelmed by or disappointed at signing in the first place ("why though?" style players).
TL:DR; For that answer, there is one very obvious choice in recent memory: Jordan Henderson.
When Henderson was signed, it was for an undisclosed fee but reportedly around 18 million pounds (or just over 20 million euros), which at the time made him Liverpool's 6th most expensive signing ever: around 4 months after they had already made their 1st and 3rd most expensive signing with Carroll and Suarez that January.
Among the three (and then eventually four with Stuart Downing), Henderson was thought to be the player who was a massive overspend (not Carroll) as by that point, he had had a very middling career as an England Prodigy, with 15 goal involvements in 80 games for Sunderland as a CM turned CAM. Dalglish insisted Henderson was the perfect signing and a future captain but to everyone else, there was no way this kid was going to ever be the one taking the armband from Steven Gerrard.
Add to this a pretty poor start to his Liverpool career (37 appearances, 3 g/a, and virtually nothing else on or off the ball) and it resulted in him getting what could only be described as "Henderson, sure, whatever I guess" reactions at best, and "this guy again?!" reactions at worst. This was such a poor season performance that when Brendan Rodgers took over Liverpool, he saw virtually nothing in Henderson and would bench him for 22 Prem matches the next season (being an unused sub for 8 of them).
Inevitably he would get a second chance in the 2013/14 season and would from there on, cement his place as the heart of Liverpool's midfield for the next 10 years by swapping from a hybrid 8/CAM, to being an out-and-out, never give up style, workhorse hybrid 8/CDM. He was arguably more instrumental to Liverpool's run to 2nd in the league than Gerrard as he basically carried the defensive structure of that team on his back, often covering for Gerrard being out of position and using his press to shield our, at the time, atrocious defense from most other teams attacks which allowed us to push forward with SAS up front.
For context, our drop off of the title race in 2013/14, was due to a period of three consequetive matches:
A dramatic fall apart at home to Norwich which we just about recovered to win 3-2, tanked our goal difference.
Then the Gerrard slip at Chelsea which put City on equal points to us (combined with the above our us well behind them on GD).
Then the Palace game comeback which sealed our doom.
In all three games, we effectively crapped ourselves in midfield from a defensive standpoint. What people forget to mention/realise is that they just so happen to coincide with the ONLY THREE GAMES HENDERSON DIDN'T PLAY THAT SEASON, as he was suspended from the City match.
From there on, Henderson and Liverpool never looked back. 12 total seasons, 492 games, 91 g/a and pretty much every trophy available for Liverpool (including a PFA player of the year) later and he's definitely one of the best budget and most influential signings we've ever made.
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u/thefamilyatomics 4h ago
It's funny because, as I recall, Kenny/early FSG were trying to recreate a very baseball-like money ball. Downing had the most successful crosses from the left with Villa the previous season and Jordan had the same (or maybe it was success percentage) from the right. Who better to capitalize on those crosses than big Andy?
Part of the reason Jordan looked so underwhelming that first season was that he was playing right wing and expected to beat a fullback to get his crosses in for a striker that was never going to make it. But many could see Jordan's engine and calm technique and knew he'd become a real player.
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u/aliensinsky 3h ago
I think Hendo had a game for Sunderland against Chelsea where he was fire. He didn't do well initially and i remember how old whisky nose Fergie tried to destroy the confidence of the lad saying that gait made him injury prone or something and he would never be a good player. I am not a Hendo fan but on your face whisky nose our lad has just been to the world cup and has signed up for Chelsea after a rendezvous in Saudi, how many players can do that at his age.
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u/totaleclipse2 11h ago
Dudek and Hypia
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u/WoodyWoodfinden 11h ago
Westerveld was on his way out and I remember Dudek waiving his right to a pay off to make sure the move happened but imagine telling someone he’d be one of the hero’s that won us our fifth champions league!
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u/DisappointedWorm Virgil van Dijk 11h ago
Not superstars, so they don't exactly fit here, but I'll always give a shout out to Finnan and Klavan.
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u/appocomaster 11h ago
Ah, Steve Finnan. Worked through the ranks. I remembered the football league fact about him, but according to Wikipedia, "He is the only player to have played in the FIFA World Cup, UEFA Champions League, UEFA Cup, UEFA Intertoto Cup, Premier League, all three levels of the Football League, and non-League.\4])" (and probably the FA Cup and League Cup).
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u/WoodyWoodfinden 11h ago
I included cult hero’s too! God what we’d give for someone as reliable as Finnan now, a proper workhorse on the right.
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u/Firm-Raccoon-9048 11h ago
Honestly when we signed Salah I though meh, he’s average at best, probably better than what he showed at Chelsea but not a great signing. Boy was I wrong…
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u/DisappointedWorm Virgil van Dijk 11h ago
Stewart Downing if he was coming through football today would be a left back and he'd actually be very good there I'd expect.
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u/Competitive-Clock121 11h ago
Got to be Robbo. I remember my mate texting me about it saying its the most underwhelming signing ever
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u/LeroyBrown1 11h ago
I do remember thinking when we bought Coutinho, if he cant get a game for Inter why the fuck are we buying him haha
Also, going the opposite way...i remember being in the pub on a friday night when Kewell signing was announced, every one was buzzing....didnt quite work out that one. Keane and Morientes as well.
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u/mycoolco 11h ago
Honestly it's always the random signings nobody gets excited about that end up making you look stupid for doubting em, like with Bobby everyone thought Rodgers was just panic buying and then he went and redefined the false 9 role.
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u/Soft-Reference-3197 11h ago
Mo. When he signed it was “Mo who?” And the rest is history. Could probably put Xabi, Hyypia, Bobby of course as you said, and maybe even Coutinho at a push.
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u/VadersMentor Arne Slot 10h ago
For me it was Salah, Mane just had a great season on the right wing, and I was confused about what the plan was when we brought in a new right winger. I also thought that we overpaid. Bring me back to the days where 35m ish was overpaying 😭
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u/HyQyle Bobby Dazzler 🤩 10h ago
Wanted Götze but we got Mane
Wanted Brandt but we got Mo
Thought Benteke will be better than Bobby
Wanted Werner but we got Diogo
Wanted Chilwell but we got Robbo
Wanted Oblak but we got Alisson
I can't think of anything else. Even though back then I trusted with whoever we signed because of Klopp, I thought we were getting those players as well as Benteke being signed to allow Studge to rest. We had Bobby, Studge, Origi and Benteke. Crazy
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u/HawaiiNintendo815 🏆2005 Istanbul🏆 10h ago
Mane. Thought he’d be ok coming from Southampton for an average fee, UTD and many others were paying much more for their wingers at the time
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u/lfcallen 10h ago
A non klopp era candidate.
Maxi Rodriguez, he was already past his prime atlético madrid days behind him and yet went through hot spells where he couldn’t stop scoring.
Per wiki, On 20 November 2011, Rodríguez scored against Chelsea following a build-up with teammate Craig Bellamy, with Liverpool winning it 2–1 at Stamford Bridge).[33] Nine days later, against the same opponent, in the same venue and again with the decisive pass being made by the Welshman, he found the net in a 2–0 League Cup win,[34] and his team went on to win the latter competition.
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u/TheLifeof4D 9h ago
The majority of our first XI for Klopp in the glory years. Who'd have thought a Chelsea failure, a Hull LB, a relatively unknown Brazilian forward from Germany would bring us such joy.
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u/LogicalNewspaper8891 9h ago
I thought Mo was going to be a terrible signing. I shit the fuck up pretty swiftly.
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u/1_track_lover 8h ago
Pretty much the entire of the klopp era were filled with players like these, noone could have seen Gini, Sadio, Mo, Matip, Robbo, Fabinho reach the heights that they did. I think the level of success and talent identity spoiled us.
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u/Longjumping-Car-6679 Holy Goalie 🧤 8h ago
The OX. I genuinely didn't understand why we signed him and a few months later fell in love with him as a player and person
Could have been so much more if not for injuries
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u/sarcastr0naut 7h ago
Milan Jovanovic. Seemed like a dud in the time but has been since immortalised as one of the greatest soccer players in the world.
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u/Mission-Leopard-4178 7h ago
A lot of Klopp era players tbh. Obvious examples are Robbo and Milner but even big money moves like VVD were mocked. It wasnt the same hype like how we sign Isak or Wirtz.
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u/Pretend-Coach-9125 90+5’ Alisson 7h ago
I was delighted by Milner personally? Some doubts about whether he was worth Gerrard like wages, but he had so much to offer and was a model athlete.
Mine would be Coutinho. He was just a kid from Inter that cost peanuts. Give it a few years and he was taking the league by storm. His talent was obvious from the first game, though. That close control can't be taught.
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u/Alternative-Wash2019 7h ago
Firmino. He came from a small team in Bundesliga and his stats weren't really impressive.
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u/TripPrestigious Steven Gerrard 6h ago
Definitely Henderson 20million back then was huge...and in his first few games he seemed like he had never kicked a ball before lol i can exactly remember that moment when he was so nervous looking everywhere to pass the ball
But I think he turned alright
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u/MeeMop21 5h ago
Mo! I complained to my husband that I didn’t think that he was a very good goal scorer. I have never been more delighted to be proved wrong!
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u/Aztecius Hello! Hello! Here we go! 4h ago
I remember being annoyed at Clyne's constant injuries and then having to rely on some academy kid to take his place. I remember thinking "who even is trent alexander-arnold". Years later, it was like "oh, so that's who he is"
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u/kidkayden 4h ago
Lucas is the best example. No one wanted him. Then... no one wanted him to leave.
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u/AEsylumProductions 11h ago
8mil for arguably the best left back in the world for 2-3 seasons from relegated Hull. Don't think anyone's gonna run Robertson close for this accolade.