Michael Owen has claimed that Liverpool pulled off one of the best signings in Premier League history under Jurgen Klopp.
As Klopp prepares to call time on his distinguished career at Anfield, talk is already turning to his legacy with the Reds. Part of that is assessing the 56-year-old’s track-record in the transfer market.
On the whole, Liverpool have had a quite remarkable success rate of signings under Klopp. From Joel Matip in 2016 to Dominik Szoboszlai in 2023, the German has barely missed.
When discussing just who comes out on top as the best signing of the Klopp era, there’s likely to be three main candidates: Alisson Becker, Mohamed Salah and Virgil van Dijk. And speaking to Premier League Productions via the Liverpool ECHO, former Reds striker Michael Owen has suggested that Liverpool’s current captain gets his vote.
“Virgil van Dijk, of course, has few question marks about him as well,” says Owen, after also naming Declan Rice’s move to Arsenal as one of the best in Premier League history. “He had a period of time in the Premier League and we had seen him.
“But he has just been one of the best signings of all time for Liverpool, let alone the Premier League. He has been one of the Premier League’s most incredible signings. He has exceeded anything that anybody could have expected.”
Owen hails Van Dijk addition
It has since been forgotten or at the very least brushed over, but Liverpool were taking a big risk by spending £75m on Van Dijk in 2018.
At the time, the Reds’ transfer record was still the £35m erroneously spent on Andy Carroll in 2011. To smash it quite so devastatingly was a really big deal.
It was also at a time when, although transfer fees were starting to get ridiculous, it was still rare to see so much spent on one player.
This was not a player performing for an elite club, either. Van Dijk had been very good indeed for Southampton for two years, but on his way to 27, he was yet to make his name at a top club.
All of that fed into the idea that Liverpool might have made a very silly decision. In the years since, that notion couldn’t have been made to look more wrong.
A year or so after his signing, Van Dijk was likely worth double what Liverpool had paid for him. Some may argue with this, but the Dutchman has a strong argument to be one of the best centre-backs of all time.
Now captain and leader of the club, Virgil has cemented himself as a Liverpool legend.
Amid rumours that he could leave this summer, that is already an undeniable fact. But let’s hope that the Reds No.4 still has a few years left in him to continue to prove Owen right.
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