Best and worst seasons, by transfer activity?

[singlerider]

A comment in another thread got me thinking - where would you rank each season by transfer dealings? Arbitrarily chosen since 2000/01 as it's a nice round number. Purchases only:​

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Transfers for the 2000-2001 season​

In​

Bernard Diomede	Auxerre	£3,000,000	7 June 2000
Gary McAllister	Free Transfer	Free *	1 July 2000
Pegguy Arphexad	Free Transfer	Free *	1 July 2000
Markus Babbel	Free Transfer	Free *	1 July 2000
Nick Barmby	Everton	£6,000,000	18 July 2000
Christian Ziege	Middlesbrough	£5,500,000	25 August 2000
Gregory Vignal	Montpellier	£500,000	22 September 2000
Daniel Sjolund	West Ham United	£1,000,000	28 November 2000
Igor Biscan	Dynamo Zagreb	£5,500,000	7 December 2000
Jari Litmanen	Barcelona	Free	4 January 2001

Transfers for the 2001-2002 season​

In​

John Arne Riise	AS Monaco	£4,000,000	20 June 2001
Chris Kirkland	Coventry City	£6,000,000 *	31 August 2001
Jerzy Dudek	Feyenoord	£4,850,000	31 August 2001
Nicolas Anelka	Paris St Germain	On Loan *	20 December 2001
Milan Baros	Banik Ostrava	£3,200,000	23 December 2001
Abel Xavier	Everton	£750,000	30 January 2002

Transfers for the 2002-2003 season​

In​

Bruno Cheyrou	Lille	£3,700,000	16 May 2002
El Hadji Diouf	Lens	£10,000,000	1 June 2002
Alou Diarra	Bayern Munich	Free	9 July 2002
Patrice Luzi	Free Transfer	Free *	29 July 2002
Salif Diao	Sedan	£4,700,000	6 August 2002

Transfers for the 2003-2004 season​

In​

Anthony Le Tallec	Le Havre	£1,500,000 *	1 July 2003
Florent Sinama-Pongolle	Le Havre	£1,500,000 *	1 July 2003
Steve Finnan	Fulham	£3,500,000	1 July 2003
Harry Kewell	Leeds United	£5,000,000	9 July 2003
Carl Medjani	Saint-Étienne	Free	8 August 2003
Paul Jones	Southampton	On Loan *	9 January 2004

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[singlerider]

Transfers for the 2004-2005 season​

In​

Djibril Cissé	Auxerre	£14,500,000 *	1 July 2004
Josemi Rey	Malaga	£2,000,000	26 July 2004
Antonio Nunez	Real Madrid	£1,500,000 *	17 August 2004
Xabi Alonso	Real Sociedad	£10,700,000	20 August 2004
Luis Garcia	Barcelona	£6,000,000	20 August 2004
Mauricio Pellegrino	Valencia	Free	5 January 2005
Fernando Morientes	Real Madrid	£6,300,000	13 January 2005
Scott Carson	Leeds United	£1,000,000	21 January 2005

Transfers for the 2005-2006 season

In​

Antonio Barragan	Sevilla	£240,000	4 July 2005
Bolo Zenden	Free Transfer	Free *	4 July 2005
Pepe Reina	Villarreal	£6,000,000	4 July 2005
Momo Sissoko	Valencia	£5,600,000	14 July 2005
Peter Crouch	Southampton	£7,000,000	20 July 2005
Miki Roque	Lleida	Unknown	15 August 2005
Jack Hobbs	Lincoln City	£750,000 *	18 August 2005
Besian Idrizaj	LASK	£190,000 *	22 August 2005
Mark Gonzalez	Albacete	£1,500,000 *	20 October 2005
Paul Anderson	Hull City	Player Exchange *	1 January 2006
Jan Kromkamp	Villarreal	Player Exchange *	4 January 2006
David Martin	MK Dons	£250,000 *	12 January 2006
Daniel Agger	Brøndby	£5,800,000	12 January 2006
Robbie Fowler	Manchester City	Free	27 January 2006

Transfers for the 2006-2007 season​

In​

Craig Bellamy	Blackburn Rovers	£6,000,000	1 July 2006
Gabriel Paletta	Club Atlético Banfield	£2,000,000	4 July 2006
Fábio Aurélio	Free Transfer	Free *	5 July 2006
Jermaine Pennant	Birmingham City	£6,700,000	26 July 2006
Dirk Kuyt	Feyenoord	£9,000,000	18 August 2006
Nabil El Zhar	Saint-Étienne	£200,000	21 August 2006
Astrit Ajdarevic	Falkenberg	£750,000	11 January 2007
Daniele Padelli	Sampdoria	On Loan *	12 January 2007
Jordy Brouwer	Ajax	Undisclosed *	24 January 2007
Francisco Durán	Malaga	£66,000 *	30 January 2007
Álvaro Arbeloa	Deportivo La Coruna	£2,500,000	31 January 2007
Javier Mascherano	West Ham United	On Loan	20 February 2007

Transfers for the 2007-2008 season​

In​

Lucas Leiva	Gremio	£5,000,000	11 May 2007
Krisztián Németh	MTK Hungaria	Undisclosed	25 May 2007
Mikel Domínguez	Athletic Bilbao	£270,000	28 June 2007
Sebastian Leto	Club Atlético Lanús	£1,800,000	1 July 2007
Dani Pacheco	Barcelona	Free	1 July 2007
Fernando Torres	Atletico Madrid	£20,200,000	4 July 2007
Andriy Voronin	Free Transfer	Free *	6 July 2007
Yossi Benayoun	West Ham United	£5,000,000	12 July 2007
Ryan Babel	Ajax	£11,500,000	13 July 2007
Charles Itandje	Lens	Undisclosed	9 August 2007
Emiliano Insúa	Boca Juniors	£1,675,000 *	26 August 2007
Lauri Dalla Valle	JIPPO	£600,000 *	8 November 2007
Martin Skrtel	Zenit Saint Petersburg	£6,500,000	11 January 2008
Javier Mascherano	GSA & MSL	£18,600,000 *	29 February 2008
Daniel Ayala	Sevilla	£160,000	17 September 2009

 

[singlerider]

Transfers for the 2008-2009 season​

In​

Philipp Degen	Free Transfer	Free *	3 July 2008
Andrea Dossena	Udinese	£7,000,000	4 July 2008
Diego Cavalieri	Palmeiras	£3,500,000	11 July 2008
David N'Gog	Paris St Germain	£1,500,000	24 July 2008
Robbie Keane	Tottenham Hotspur	£19,000,000	28 July 2008
Albert Riera	Espanyol	£8,000,000	31 August 2008

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Transfers for the 2009-2010 season​

In​

Glen Johnson	Portsmouth	£17,500,000	26 June 2009
Alberto Aquilani	Roma	£17,100,000 *	7 August 2009
Sotirios Kyrgiakos	AEK Athens	£2,000,000	21 August 2009
Maxi Rodriguez	Atletico Madrid	Free	13 January 2010
Raheem Sterling	Queens Park Rangers	£500,000 *	27 February 2010

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Transfers for the 2010-2011 season​

In​

Jonjo Shelvey	Charlton Athletic	£1,700,000 *	10 May 2010
Milan Jovanovic	Standard Liege	Free *	8 July 2010
Joe Cole	Free Transfer	Free	21 July 2010
Danny Wilson	Rangers	£2,000,000 *	21 July 2010
Fábio Aurélio	Free Transfer	Free	31 July 2010
Christian Poulsen	Juventus	£4,550,000 *	11 August 2010
Brad Jones	Middlesbrough	£2,300,000	18 August 2010
Raul Meireles	Porto	£11,500,000	29 August 2010
Paul Konchesky	Fulham	£3,500,000 *	31 August 2010
Suso	Cadiz	Unknown *	31 August 2010
Luis Suarez	Ajax	£22,800,000	31 January 2011
Andy Carroll	Newcastle United	£35,000,000	31 January 2011

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Transfers for the 2011-2012 season​

In​

Jordan Henderson	Sunderland	£16,000,000 *	9 June 2011
Charlie Adam	Blackpool	£6,750,000	7 July 2011
Alexander Doni	Roma	Free	15 July 2011
Stewart Downing	Aston Villa	£18,500,000	15 July 2011
Jose Enrique	Newcastle United	£6,000,000	12 August 2011
Sebastian Coates	Nacional	£4,900,000	30 August 2011
Craig Bellamy	Manchester City	Free	31 August 2011
Jordon Ibe	Wycombe Wanderers	£500,000	20 December 2011
João Carlos Teixeira	Sporting Lisbon	£830,000	31 January 2012

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Transfers for the 2012-2013 season​

In​

Fabio Borini	Roma	£10,400,000	13 July 2012
Joe Allen	Swansea City	£15,000,000	10 August 2012
Oussama Assaidi	Heerenveen	£3,000,000	17 August 2012
Nuri Sahin	Real Madrid	On Loan	25 August 2012
Samed Yesil	Bayer Leverkusen	£1,000,000	30 August 2012
Daniel Sturridge	Chelsea	£12,000,000	2 January 2013
Philippe Coutinho	Inter Milan	£8,500,000	30 January 2013

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[singlerider]

Transfers for the 2013-2014 season​

In​

Luis Alberto	Sevilla	£6,800,000	22 June 2013
Iago Aspas	Celta Vigo	£7,000,000	23 June 2013
Simon Mignolet	Sunderland	£9,000,000	25 June 2013
Kolo Touré	Free Transfer	Free	2 July 2013
Aly Cissokho	Valencia	On Loan	20 August 2013
Mamadou Sakho	Paris St Germain	£15,000,000	2 September 2013
Tiago Ilori	Sporting Lisbon	£3,500,000 *	2 September 2013
Victor Moses	Chelsea	On Loan	2 September 2013

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Transfers for the 2014-2015 season​

In​

Rickie Lambert	Southampton	£4,500,000	2 June 2014
Adam Lallana	Southampton	£25,000,000 *	1 July 2014
Kevin Stewart	Free Transfer	Free	2 July 2014
Emre Can	Bayer Leverkusen	£9,750,000	3 July 2014
Lazar Markovic	Benfica	£19,800,000	15 July 2014
Dejan Lovren	Southampton	£20,000,000 *	27 July 2014
Divock Origi	Lille	£9,800,000 *	29 July 2014
Javier Manquillo	Atletico Madrid	On Loan	6 August 2014
Alberto Moreno	Sevilla	£12,000,000 *	16 August 2014
Mario Balotelli	AC Milan	£16,000,000	25 August 2014

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Transfers for the 2015-2016 season​

In​

Joe Gomez	Charlton Athletic	£6,000,000 *	20 June 2015
Adam Bogdan	Free Transfer	Free	1 July 2015
Danny Ings	Free Transfer	£8,000,000 *	1 July 2015
James Milner	Free Transfer	Free	1 July 2015
Nathaniel Clyne	Southampton	£12,500,000	1 July 2015
Roberto Firmino	TSG 1899 Hoffenheim	£29,000,000 *	6 July 2015
Christian Benteke	Aston Villa	£32,500,000	22 July 2015
Allan Rodrigues de Souza	Internacional	£500,000	2 September 2015
Marko Grujic	Red Star Belgrade	£5,100,000	6 January 2016
Steven Caulker	Queens Park Rangers	On Loan	12 January 2016
Kamil Grabara	Ruch Chorzow	£250,000	15 January 2016

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Transfers for the 2016-2017 season​

In​

Sadio Mané	Southampton	£30,000,000	28 June 2016
Loris Karius	Mainz 05	£4,700,000	1 July 2016
Joël Matip	Free Transfer	Free	1 July 2016
Ragnar Klavan	Augsburg	£4,200,000	20 July 2016
Alex Manninger	Free Transfer	Free	22 July 2016
Georginio Wijnaldum	Newcastle United	£25,000,000 *	22 July 2016

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[singlerider]

Transfers for the 2017-2018 season​

In​

Mohamed Salah	Roma	£43,900,000 *	1 July 2017
Dominic Solanke	Chelsea	£4,000,000 *	10 July 2017
Andy Robertson	Hull City	£10,000,000 *	21 July 2017
Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain	Arsenal	£35,000,000	31 August 2017
Virgil Van Dijk	Southampton	£75,000,000	1 January 2018

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Transfers for the 2018-2019 season​

In​

Naby Keita	RasenBallsport Leipzig	£52,750,000	1 July 2018
Fabinho Tavarez	AS Monaco	£43,700,000 *	1 July 2018
Xherdan Shaqiri	Stoke City	£13,750,000	13 July 2018
Alisson Becker	Roma	£65,000,000 *	19 July 2018
Sepp van den Berg	PEC Zwolle	£4,400,000 *	27 June 2019

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Transfers for the 2019-2020 season​

In​

Harvey Elliott	Fulham	£4,300,000 *	28 July 2019
Adrián San Miguel	Free Transfer	Free	5 August 2019
Andy Lonergan	Free Transfer	Free	12 August 2019
Takumi Minamino	Red Bull Salzburg	£7,250,000	1 January 2020

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Transfers for the 2020-2021 season​

In​

Fabian Mrozek	FC Wroclaw	£250,000	5 July 2020
Kostas Tsimikas	Olympiacos	£11,750,000	10 August 2020
Thiago Alcantara	Bayern Munich	£27,400,000 *	18 September 2020
Diogo Jota	Wolves	£45,000,000 *	19 September 2020
Marcelo Pitaluga	Fluminense	£1,800,000 *	8 October 2020
Calum Scanlon	Birmingham City	£550,000	23 December 2020
Stefan Bajcetic	Celta Vigo	£224,000	1 January 2021
Ben Davies	Preston North End	£1,600,000 *	1 February 2021
Ozan Kabak	Schalke 04	On Loan *	1 February 2021
Kaide Gordon	Derby County	£3,400,000 *	6 February 2021

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[singlerider]

Transfers for the 2021-2022 season​

In​

Ibrahima Konaté	RasenBallsport Leipzig	£36,000,000	1 July 2021
Luis Diaz	Porto	£50,000,000 *	30 January 2022

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Transfers for the 2022-2023 season​

In​

Darwin Nunez	Benfica	£85,360,000 *	14 June 2022
Calvin Ramsay	Aberdeen	£6,500,000 *	19 June 2022
Fabio Carvalho	Fulham	£7,700,000 *	1 July 2022
Ben Doak	Celtic	£600,000	1 July 2022
Trent Kone-Doherty	Derry City	£147,000	1 July 2022
Arthur Melo	Juventus	On Loan *	1 September 2022
Cody Gakpo	PSV Eindhoven	£44,000,000 *	3 January 2023

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Transfers for the 2023-2024 season​

In​

Alexis Mac Allister	Brighton & Hove Albion	£35,000,000	8 June 2023
Dominik Szoboszlai	RasenBallsport Leipzig	£60,100,000	2 July 2023
Wataru Endo	VfB Stuttgart	£16,200,000	18 August 2023
Ryan Gravenberch	Bayern Munich	£34,200,000	1 September 2023

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Transfers for the 2024-2025 season​

In​

Giorgi Mamardashvili	Valencia	£29,450,000 *	27 August 2024
Federico Chiesa	Juventus	£12,500,000 *	29 August 2024

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Looking at that lot, I reckon if I was part of the transfer committee, I'd be feeling pretty fucking validated right now. Christ we've bought some dross over the years...​

 

[Squiggles]

I scanned that with the same feeling.

General thoughts -

It's funny we in a place where we having to sign the likes of Christian Poulson, Koncheksy, and also landed Luis Suarez in the same window.

I know this is by year, but the January window where we signed Coutinho and Sturridge has to be one of the best January business in PL history, let alone just Liverpool's.

I'd probably give Salah, Robertson and VVD window the best ever. The value we extracted from those players alone is difficult to compete with. Solanke proved astute business. The flop there is Chamberlain, but we did get some big moments from him.

I'd follow that closely by the midfield rebuild of 23/24. That was more understated, but they all landed and it's been pivotal for number 20.

 

[Atlas]

02/03 season, gave me PTSD reading that.

 

[singlerider]

02/03, 08/09, and 13/14 looking pretty shit from where I'm sitting.

17/18 and 23/24 looking pretty tasty!

 

[dmishra]

Generally been fantastic since the Klopp era. Something like a 70% success rate, I'd say, which is pretty incredible and one of the main reasons we've been so successful.

 

[singlerider]

02/03 season, gave me PTSD reading that.

It's horrific, isn't it?

 

[Athens]

The flop there is Chamberlain, but we did get some big moments from him.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-82TK6kmwQ

 

[singlerider]

I scanned that with the same feeling.

General thoughts -

It's funny we in a place where we having to sign the likes of Christian Poulson and Koncheksy and landed Suarez in the same window.

I know this is by year, but the January window where we signed Coutinho and Sturridge has to be one of the best January business in PL history, let alone just Liverpool's.

I'd probably give Salah, Robertson and VVD window the best ever. The value we extracted from those players alone is difficult to compete with. Solanke proved astute business. The flop there is Chamberlain, but we did get some big moments from him.

I'd follow that closely by the midfield rebuild of 23/24. That was more understated, but they all landed and it's been pivotal for number 20.

Yeah, deffo. That summer was terrible though...

Even the Ox I don't think was necessarily a terrible signing - he (and we) got very unlucky with injuries, which admittedly me ay have been predicted, but like you say he scored some big goals for us.

The midfield rebuild looks better and better when looking back over previous years...

 

[Whaddapie]

The 12 months where we got Mo, Virgil, Ali AND Fabs... Wow. Just Wow.

 

[singlerider]

The 12 months where we got Mo, Virgil, Ali AND Fabs... Wow. Just Wow.

Technically 13 months if we put our pedant hats on.

Also, a wee bit harsh on Robbo there, aye?

 

[Whaddapie]

Technically 13 months if we put our pedant hats on.

Also, a wee bit harsh on Robbo there, aye?

Guilty as charged... But those four changed the history of this club. They're the spine of what we now have. We cannot overestimeate their role in our recent history.

 

[singlerider]

Oof, doubling down on the "Robbo, who the fuck is that?" sentiment I see...

 

[keniget]

Yeah 02-03 and 08-09 are probably top 2.

We’ve had so many volume windows full of awful players as well.

 

[darkstarexodus]

I scanned that with the same feeling.

General thoughts -

It's funny we in a place where we having to sign the likes of Christian Poulson, Koncheksy, and also landed Luis Suarez in the same window.

I know this is by year, but the January window where we signed Coutinho and Sturridge has to be one of the best January business in PL history, let alone just Liverpool's.

I'd probably give Salah, Robertson and VVD window the best ever. The value we extracted from those players alone is difficult to compete with. Solanke proved astute business. The flop there is Chamberlain, but we did get some big moments from him.

I'd follow that closely by the midfield rebuild of 23/24. That was more understated, but they all landed and it's been pivotal for number 20.

I'm with you:

Coutinho/Sturridge, Mo/Robbo/Virgil, and midfield rebuild stand head and shoulders above imo.

And the Torres signing was huge. A statement of intent that paid off the second he hit the pitch for us. Plus we signed Skrtel and made Mascherano permanent. So I'll give an honourable mention to that year.

 

[singlerider]

I wonder which ones were the biggest disappointments?

Like, many of those windows I'm sure we were bitching and moaning about wasting money on shit, but some of them we would have had high hopes for and only with the benefit of hindsight can we see the folly...

You could say we expected them to be great (xG) but then they turned out to be flops 😜

 

[Markeh]

when you blow the kitty on senegalese donkeys and pound shop zidane then don’t bother your arse to sign one of the best strikers to have played in the premier league

 

[FreshRed]

That is a very intimidating start to a thread. I need to catch my wind before I can think about sharing an opinion.

 

[Richey]

Signing 20 goalkeepers over 25 seasons feels excessive.

Especially considering that there would have been two there to start with and a couple of homegrown keepers over that time too.

 

[StevieM]

I went through all of those transfers and do you know what stuck out?

Illori still hasn’t played for the reserves!!!