Who are Jamie Carragher’s top Liverpool transfers of the Premier League era?

Stefan Bienkowski

• Updated: 23 May 2023 08:44 CDT
• 2 min read

Liverpool legend Jamie Carragher has suggested that Sami Hyypia – not Virgil Van Dijk, Jordan Henderson or Mohamed Salah – has been the club’s best signing of the Premier League era. 

The towering defender joined Liverpool in 1999 after making the move from Dutch side Willem II for just £2.6 million. 

Despite receiving very little fanfare at the time, Hyypia went on to make over 350 appearances for the Premier League side, winning six major trophies including the Champions League and UEFA Cup. 

And while the Finnish defender may not have been Liverpool’s most high-profile signing of the modern era, Garragher believes Hyypia may have provided the very best value for money. 

 “This is not who the best player is, this is pound-for-pound,” Garragher said on Sky Sport’s Monday Night Football show. 

“And the reason Hyypia is on that list is because when I think of where Liverpool were in 1999, they were a team finishing sixth and seventh in the league.

“That team was known as a weak team, got bullied. He [Hyypia] came in and over the next ten years, he was never injured, and Liverpool went from a soft touch to a team that was mentally and physically very strong and he was a massive part of that.

“The success we had with Gerard Houllier and Rafael Benitez was built on defence. It was built on solidity and that was built on his signing.

“The price tag, the never being injured, the ten years of service and the trophies that he won, that’s why he’s top.”

When asked to come up with his five top Liverpool signings of the Premier League era, Garragher picked Hyypia as his no.1 choice, followed by striker Luis Suarez, left-back Andy Robertson, Salah and then Van Dijk.