While Andrew Robertson is the best value we have got in the last few years it got me thinking about others. Gary McAllister would have to be up there as he was free, I think Hyypia needs a mention at just over 2m I think.
Looking back at some they seem to be snips at what we paid, but then again the transfer fee has become so massively inflated I dont know if I'm judging them by todays prices or were they genuinely steals at the time. Anyway.... Reina - 6m Xabi - 10.7m Coutinho 8.5m Milner - Free Suarez 22.8m (that one seemed a lot at the time - but it wasnt!) Garry Mac - Free Maxi - Free Henchoz - 3.5m (I think?) Andy Robertson has to be the best 8m we ever spent. Back in the day 300k for Rushie and 440k for the King werent too shabby either
Trevor Francis was the £1m player around the same time Ian Rush signed for Liverpool so that gives an indication of what 300k was worth. The King was a transfer record himself. Milner for free is outstanding but as Babbs said in another thread, the wages adds another aspect to each transfer. EDIT: Obviously another factor to consider is the resale value. That definitely puts Coutinho up near the top of the value list.
Each to their own but if it's judged by what someone did as a Liverpool player.rather than the profit made when we sold him,then imo there's no way it can be any player we signed in the last 3 decades. Kevin Keegan cost 40 grand,Alan Hansen was about 100 grand,Steve Heighway cost us close to nothing and they're just the ones off the top of my head.
Value needs to be considered in it's modern equivalent though I'd say Babbs, what did 40k and 100k equate to back then, was that a high fee of that era? Coutinho and Suarez in terms of the cost, what we got out of them for a few years and the amount we sold them for must be right up there in terms of overall value though there's many more that will have contributed for much longer periods for less money I'm sure but it depends on what your definition of value is.
They were modest fees even back then Ed and those players contributed massively to loads of trophies. Suarez and Coutinho have 1 league cup between them at Liverpool. The definition of value to me(at least for the purpose of this thread) is what they contribute as players for Liverpool because whatever money we get when we sell them goes back into trying to achieve what the likes of the players in our more successful periods did. But the fee we received for Keegan when he left was the highest fee a British club had ever recieved,which we spent on Kenny Dalglish and were still left with the 60 grand we initially spent on him. I don't know if he's the best value we ever got but no matter what way you look at it,it's hard to make an argument for any signing in our recent history against him.
Just looking at Ian Rush stats there. Over 200 goals before we sold him to Juve for about 10 times what we paid for him.
Sold for just over double the price we bought him for, not as much as Rush for 10 times more. Although if you calculate goals per price, it could be the best!