Isak is Liverpool’s 11th club-record signing of the Premier League era – how did the other 10 fare? | OneFootball

When Liverpool signed Alexander Isak last Monday, they made him not only their club-record signing but also the most expensive transfer ever completed in Britain.

As per The Athletic, the Reds have paid £125m to Newcastle for the Swedish striker, who made no secret of his desire for the move before it was finally granted on deadline day.

According to the phenomenal resource that is LFChistory.net, the 25-year-old has become the 11th club-record signing made by Liverpool since the Premier League began in 1992, but how did his 10 predecessors fare at Anfield?

Liverpool’s club-record signings in the Premier League era

Phil Babb (£3.6m from Coventry, January 1994)

A simpler time when £3.6m represented a club-record transfer fee rather than a player’s annual pay packet, the Republic of Ireland defender joined midway through a turgid 1993/94 season for Liverpool and went on to accrue 170 appearances in six-and-a-half years at Anfield.

Best remembered outside Merseyside for a painful goalpost collison against Chelsea, the centre-back cut a composed figure in the earlier part of his Reds career but later appeared uncomfortable as part of a back three under Roy Evans and had become a bit-part player by the time the late Gerard Houllier took sole charge.

Mandatory Credit: Clive Brunskill/ALLSPORT

Stan Collymore (£8.5m from Nottingham Forest, July 1995)

We all know about THAT goal against Newcastle in 1996, and Collymore also scored the winner on his Liverpool debut against Sheffield Wednesday. Having initially played alongside Ian Rush, he would go on to form a more effective partnership with Robbie Fowler at Anfield.

However, his second season was dogged by an inconsistency that Evans called out, and he departed for Aston Villa in 1997 after hitting 35 goals in 81 appearances for the Reds.

Emile Heskey (£11m from Leicester, March 2000)

Signed in the spring before the introduction of the transfer window as we know it today, the striker made a promising start to life at Anfield before catching fire in the 2000/01 treble season, scoring 22 times in that unforgettable campaign.

However, he’d never recapture such heights at Liverpool and was derided in the mass media over his ailing goal ratio in his final couple of years with the Reds before leaving for Birmingham in 2004. Despite the external perception of him as awkward and cumbersome, his wholehearted attitude earned him the respect of the Kop.

Djibril Cisse (£14.5m from Auxerre, July 2004)

A parting gift from Houllier to his successor Rafael Benitez, the French forward’s first season at Anfield was ruined by a horrific leg break, although he recovered in time to come off the bench and score in the penalty shootout as Liverpool won their fifth European Cup in Istanbul.

The 2005/06 campaign started and ended well, with a prolonged slump in the middle, though he did net in the FA Cup final against West Ham. That would be his last game for LFC, having joined Marseille on loan that summer before signing permanently for the Ligue 1 side in 2007.

(Photo by Alex Livesey/Getty Images)

Fernando Torres (£20.2m from Atletico Madrid, July 2007)

A genuine Hollywood signing, he netted on his debut against Chelsea and gave Liverpool the truly top-class striker they had been missing since Fowler and Michael Owen in their prime.

The Spaniard thrived off the service of Steven Gerrard and often came up clutch in the biggest games, netting in famous wins over Real Madrid and Mancheser United in March 2009, and his final goal tally for the Reds was 81 in 142 appearances.

Sadly, he played for LFC at a time of extreme turmoil for the club off the pitch and left for Chelsea midway through the 2010/11 campaign, but the best years of his career were spent at Anfield.

Andy Carroll (£35m from Newcastle, January 2011)

The Englishman joined Liverpool on the same day that Torres departed and immediately took over the number 9 shirt. He’d have to wait until April for his first goal for the Reds, although that was mainly due to a lengthy injury absence.

The towering striker appeared to struggle with the weight of the price tag and could only manage 11 goals in 58 games, although one of those was a memorable FA Cup semi-final winner against Everton. When Brendan Rodgers replaced Sir Kenny Dalglish in the dugout in 2012, he soon dispatched the ponytailed target man to West Ham.

Mo Salah (£43.9m from Roma, June 2017)

The Egyptian didn’t set the world alight during his time at Chelsea earlier in the decade, but he became one of the best players on the planet after joining Liverpool eight years ago, and a 44-goal debut season was a sign of things to come.

Rarely (if ever) has there been a forward of such consistent output over an extended period at Anfield, with the 33-year-old becoming the club’s third-highest scorer of all time on 246 goals and counting. He made his initial transfer fee look like an absolute steal! A genuine phenomenon.

(Photo by Laurence Griffiths/Getty Images)

Virgil van Dijk (£75m from Southampton, January 2018)

The Dutchman was the epitome of a transformative signing, turning a previously porous Liverpool defence into a near-impenetrable unit with his unrivalled positional sense and leadership qualities.

Van Dijk has become the backbone of a glorious era at Anfield which has delivered two Premier League titles, the Champions League and several domestic cups. Even at £75m, the current Reds captain is pound-for-pound one of our greatest ever signings.

Darwin Nunez (£85.3m from Benfica, June 2022)

Signed for an initial £64m before various add-ons, the Uruguayan starred for the Portuguese club at Anfield in a Champions League quarter-final but would become something of an enigma at Liverpool.

A petulant red card on his home debut didn’t augur well, and he had a habit of missing chances that a £60m+ striker should bury with ease.

However, his charisma endeared himself to the Merseyside faithful, as did a knack for stoppage-time winning goals, and he left the club this summer with a Premier League winner’s medal to his name.

Florian Wirtz (£116.5m from Bayer Leverkusen, June 2025)

The German was Liverpool’s record signing for all of four matches of his Reds career before the blockbuster Isak deal on deadline day.

It’s obviously far too early to pass judgement on the 22-year-old, but if he can live up to the show-stopping performances that he consistently produced for Leverkusen, he’ll be a game-changer at Anfield!