FSG have overseen over £1.5bn of Liverpool transfer signings and here’s what the ECHO makes of them all
Liverpool owner John W. Henry (left) has tempted Michael Edwards to return as FSG’s new CEO of Football
After 15 years in charge, the Liverpool owners Fenway Sports Group have, more than almost anything else, constantly been judged on their ability in the transfer market. There have been some missteps, some inspirational business, some bargains, some expensive failures.
In total, there have been 30 transfer windows in which 82 first-team signings have been made with over £1.5billion spent.
And here we rate (out of 10) every one of Liverpool’s purchases under the stewardship of the American owners, taking into account their cost, their impact and, in some cases, the funds raised by their departure.
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Not taken into consideration, though, are signings made specifically for the Academy – even if they did then make it into the first team, such as Stefan Bajcetic, Kaide Gordon, Ben Doak, Bobby Clark and Armin Pesci.
January 2011
Luis Suarez (£22.8m, Ajax) 9, Andy Carroll (£35m, Newcastle United) 4
Suarez may have caused one or two problems during his time at Anfield, but there was no disputing his talent, particularly during the 2013/14 campaign. Carroll, bought after the sale of Fernando Torres to Chelsea, will always have a special place in the hearts of Reds fans for his FA Cup semi-final winner against Everton, but injuries and form made him a very expensive failure.
Summer 2011
Jordan Henderson (£16m, Sunderland) 10, Charlie Adam (£6.75m, Blackpool) 4, Alexander Doni (free) 5, Stewart Downing (£18.5m, Aston Villa) 6, Jose Enrique (£6m, Newcastle United) 6, Sebastian Coates (£4.9m, Nacional) 5, Craig Bellamy (free) 7
The Comolli summer. Ultimately, only Henderson provided real value for money – and could still command at least £12m on his departure 12 years later – even if Downing went on to be man of the match in the League Cup final in 2012 before becoming a left-back under Brendan Rodgers. Enrique was decent enough, but Adam, Coates and the hapless Doni – Blackburn Rovers away, anyone? – rarely impressed. Bellamy, in his second stint at the club, did a job well.
January 2012
Jordon Ibe (£500,000, Wycombe Wanderers) 8, Joao Carlos Teixeira (£830,000, Sporting Lisbon) 5
Ibe promised to be the new Raheem Sterling when he broke into the first team, but failed to meet expectations. Nevertheless, the £15m Liverpool received for his services makes his signing remarkably prescient. Teixeira scored once in eight appearances and was on the bench for Jurgen Klopp’s first game, but was never going to make the grade.
Summer 2012
Fabio Borini (£10.4m, Roma) 4, Joe Allen (£15m, Swansea City) 7, Oussama Assaidi (£3m, Heerenveen) 2, Nuri Sahin (loan, Real Madrid) 3, Samed Yesil (£1m, Bayer Leverkusen) 3
Borini was the first signing under Brendan Rodgers, who gave the Italian a glowing recommendation. The striker didn’t come close to meeting such lofty expectations. Allen did well enough under Rodgers and then Klopp, but the rest were utterly forgettable. Yesil, who made two appearances for Liverpool, is now playing in the German fifth tier.
January 2013
Daniel Sturridge (£12m, Chelsea) 8, Philippe Coutinho (£8.5m, Inter Milan) 10
Was this Liverpool’s greatest January transfer window of all time? Sturridge knew he was on a last chance at a big club when arriving at Anfield, and only injuries quelled his prodigious talent, although he claimed a Champions League winners’ medal. Coutinho, meanwhile, may have irked by agitating for a move to Barcelona, but Liverpool saw the Brazilian blossom into a genuine world-class talent – and £142m is an awful lot of money.
Summer 2013
Luis Alberto (£6.8m, Sevilla) 3, Iago Aspas (£7m, Celta Vigo) 3, Simon Mignolet (£9m, Sunderland) 7, Kolo Toure (free) 8, Aly Cissokho (loan, Valencia) 5, Mamadou Sakho (£15m, Paris Saint-Germain) 6, Tiago Ilori (£3.5m, Sporting Lisbon) 3, Victor Moses (loan, Chelsea) 5
Alberto and Aspas subsequently both produced at the highest level elsewhere, good players but bad buys at the time, and not just due to the latter’s corner-taking abilities. Mignolet proved a good servant, while Toure was the ultimate popular professional during his two years at Anfield. Cissokho and Moses were indifferent loans, Sakho ended up becoming too much of an issue while there is still wonder why Ilori was actually signed in the first place.
Summer 2014
Rickie Lambert (£4.5m, Southampton) 4, Adam Lallana (£25m, Southampton) 8, Emre Can (£9.5m, Bayer Leverkusen) 7, Kevin Stewart (free) 6, Lazar Markovic (£19.8m, Benfica) 2, Dejan Lovren (£20m, Southampton) 8, Divock Origi (£9.8m, Lille) 7, Javier Manquillo (loan, Atletico Madrid) 5, Alberto Moreno (£12m, Sevilla) 6, Mario Balotelli (£16m, AC Milan) 1
The summer that ultimately did for the Rodgers reign. Lallana, Lovren and Origi claimed Premier League winners’ medals to go with the European Cup win they earned in 2019. Can improved under Klopp and perhaps regrets not staying at least another season. Moreno will forever divide opinion, but not so Markovic and Balotelli, among the two worst buys in Liverpool’s history albeit for different reasons.
Summer 2015
Joe Gomez (£6m, Charlton Athletic) 9, Adam Bogdan (free) 3, Danny Ings (£8m, Burnley) 8, James Milner (free) 10, Nathaniel Clyne (£12.5m, Southampton) 7, Roberto Firmino (£29m, Hoffenheim) 10, Christian Benteke (£32.5m, Aston Villa) 4, Allan (£500,000, Internacional) 4
Benteke was the wrong signing at the wrong time, no matter how hard he tried, while Bogdan was simply never good enough. Allan? Who knows. The remainder, though, forged part of Klopp’s evolution, although Ings and Clyne were both hampered by serious injury, the former’s talent underlined by the £18m Southampton paid to take him from Liverpool and similar fees subsequently spent by Aston Villa and West Ham United. Milner and Firmino became Anfield legends before departing after eight years, while the versatile Gomez remains an asset..
January 2016
Marko Grujic (£5.1m, Red Star Belgrade) 6, Steven Caulker (loan, QPR) 5, Kamil Grabara (£250,000, Ruch Chorzow) 5
Caulker was only ever short term – he’ll always have Norwich City away – while Liverpool moved on at a greater rate than Grujic could progress on his many loan deals before departing for good. Grabara slipped out of view but after a spell in Denmark moved to Wolfsburg for more than £10m in 2024.
Summer 2016
Sadio Mane (£30m, Southampton) 10, Loris Karius (£4.7m, Mainz) 5, Joel Matip (free) 9, Ragnar Klavan (£4.2m, Augsburg) 7, Alex Manninger (free), Gini Wijnaldum (£25m, Newcastle United) 9
Mane emerged as one of the best players in the world and was sold six years later for a profit, while Wijnaldum’s consistency and versatility underlined the wisdom of his purchase – if not the willingness to let him leave for nothing. Klavan was a canny buy, Matip was massively popular and hugely effective when fit and while the career of Karius has still not got over his Champions League nightmare in Kiev in 2018 although he is now a regular in the German second tier with Schalke. Manninger, 39 at the time, was only for emergencies and never needed.
Summer 2017
Mohamed Salah (£36.9m, Roma) 10, Dominic Solanke (undisclosed fee, Chelsea) 7, Andy Robertson (£10m, Hull City) 10, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain (£35m, Arsenal) 7
The window that elevated Liverpool from Premier League contenders to Champions League finalists. Salah, part of the most feared strikeforce in world football, may be one of the best signings in Anfield history, while Robertson is proving as much a defensive bargain as Sami Hyypia. Oxlade-Chamberlain was unfortunate with injury but played a big part in the 2019/20 title-winning campaign, while the Reds brought in £19m for Solanke when he left – around three times the fee they paid.
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January 2018
Virgil van Dijk (£75m, Southampton) 10
That’s a lot of cash. But FSG were happy to spend it on the say-so of Klopp after the sale of Coutinho. And such has been the impact of the Dutchman, it now appears something of a steal.
Summer 2018
Naby Keita (£52.75m, RB Leipzig) 6, Fabinho (£39.3m, Monaco) 10, Xherdan Shaqiri (£12.85m, Stoke City) 7, Alisson Becker (£65m, Roma) 10
Like Van Dijk, both Alisson and, eventually, Fabinho helped Liverpool take the final step to becoming Premier League, European and world champions, the latter running himself into the ground before his legs went and he departed to Saudi Arabia for about the price he arrived. Shaqiri’s talent was blunted by injury before his exit in the summer, while Keita’s own fitness issues mean he will forever be a disappointing enigma.
Summer 2019
Harvey Elliott (up to £4.3m, Fulham) 8, Sepp van den Berg (£1.3m, PEC Zwolle) 7, Adrian (free) 6
The fee set for Elliott by a tribunal was cheap given his impressive contributions over several seasons before joining Aston Villa on loan this summer ahead of a £35m move Adrian, a few missteps aside, was a solid enough purchase, while Van den Berg earned Liverpool good cash when joining Brentford given he hardly played for the club.
January 2020
Takumi Minamino (£7.25m, Red Bull Salzburg) 7
A slow start to life at Anfield for the Japanese international looked to have picked up when he scored his first goal for the Reds in the Community Shield against Arsenal in 2020 but despite contributing in the quadruple-chasing campaign in 2021/22, he was nowhere near a regular. Liverpool, though, got good money for him.
Summer 2020
Kostas Tsmikas (£11.25m, Olympiakos) 7, Thiago Alcantara (£25m, Bayern Munich) 7, Diogo Jota (£41m, Wolves) 8
Tsimikas barely got a chance in his debut campaign but since proved a decent enough deputy for Robertson, while Thiago’s undoubted world-class talent was too often been hampered by injury. Diogo Jota impressed during his first two seasons, but was then beset by fitness problems for too much of his Anfield career. His tragic death this summer means he will never be forgotten.
January 2021
Ben Davies (£500,000, Preston North End) 4, Ozan Kabak (loan, Schalke) 6
Responding to the emergency of having three centre-backs injured, Klopp swooped for the duo on deadline day. Neither worked out. Davies never featured while Kabak overcame an unsteady start to do okay before his spell was ended by injury.
Summer 2021
Ibrahima Konate (£36m, RB Leipzig) 8
The Frenchman emerged as the first-choice partner for Van Dijk towards the end of his first season, but too often since then has been sidelined with a number of injuries, both niggling and long-term. It contributed to him losing his first-team place to Jarell Quansah before regaining it almost immediately under Slot and becoming a Premier League winner.
January 2022
Luis Diaz (£50m, Porto) 9
There was a real sense of surprise when Liverpool swooped in ahead of Tottenham Hotspur for the Colombian winger, but his impact in the second half of the 2021/22 season was huge. Lost a large part of the next campaign through injury, but after taking a while to rediscover his verve he started to contribute numbers in terms of goals and assists, and was sold at a big profit to Bayern Munich this summer.
Summer 2022
Darwin Nunez (£85m, Benfica) 6, Calvin Ramsay (£6.5m, Aberdeen) 4, Fabio Carvalho (£7.7m, Fulham) 6, Arthur Melo (Loan, Juventus) n/a
Nunez’s debut season wasn’t anywhere near as bad as was painted in some quarters, and despite a better second term he still ended it on the bench, which is where he spent much of last season under Slot before leaving for Saudi Arabia. Ramsay has spent most of the time injured while loan spells have thus far not been successful, while Carvalho shone only briefly before a poor loan at RB Leipzig was followed by a better one at Hull City which ultimately led to a move to Brentford at a good profit for Liverpool. The less said about the unfortunate Arthur the better.
January 2023
Cody Gakpo (£44m, PSV Eindhoven) 8
Another unexpected mid-season arrival, the Dutchman took a few weeks to settle but soon emerged as the natural successor to Firmino in the number nine role. He was then shifted around the team in various positions before becoming a left winger under Slot and providing many key moments in the title triumph of 2025.
Summer 2023
Alexis Mac Allister (£35m, Brighton) 9, Dominik Szoboszlai (£60m, RB Leipzig) 9, Wataru Endo (£16.2m, Stuttgart) 7, Ryan Gravenberch (£35m, Bayern Munich) 9
At more than £150m, the overhaul of the Liverpool midfield had never before been so extensive or expensive in one transfer window. Mac Allister has emerged as one of the Premier League’s best engine room operators while, after a difficult second half to his debut season, Szoboszlai has become a huge success in whichever position he is featured. Endo became a fan favourite in the number six role under Klopp but hasn’t been seen much under Slot, while Gravenberch’s first season was largely one of adjusting to another new league and new country before proving a revelation in the deeper midfield role in the title-winning season.
Summer 2024
Federico Chiesa (£12.5m, Juventus) 6
Chiesa has still yet to full convince Slot of his wares and was barely used last season, but did score in the League Cup final loss to Newcastle United and has contributed some important moments early on in this campaign.
Summer 2025
Jeremie Frimpong (£29.5m, Bayer Leverkusen), Florian Wirtz (£116.5m, Bayer Leverkusen), Milos Kerkez (£40m, Bournemouth), Freddie Woodman (Free), Giorgi Mamardashvili (£29m, Valencia), Hugo Ekitike (£79m, Eintracht Frankfurt), Giovanni Leoni (£29m, Parma), Alexander Isak (£125m, Newcastle United)
It is far too early to begin passing judgement on Liverpool’s overhaul during the summer. But with the club transfer window having been smashed twice in the window and the Reds defending Premier League champions, the scrutiny on the dealings will be more intense than ever before.