30 Jun 2023 20:12:38
One for fans who suffered the early 90s. is it fair to say we didn't make a really decent first team signing between Houghton in summer '87 and Hyppia in summer '98? During that period, outside of the total duds, Rush came back (for me, I'm not sure about his 2nd period), Redknapp came in as an U21 player, and then we had up-and-down players like McAteer, Mark Wright, Rob Jones (in fairness injury did for him), Scales (underrated), and Collymore (good for 1 season) .

That's 11 years of poor recruitment with a lot of money spent, 3 seasons of which were under Kenny when we were the number one club. Looking at that: I am not sure we can totally blame Mad Graeme for our decline - did we lose the plot with recruitment? I mean the likes of Keane, Shearer etc were available during those years. recruitment wise, the club seems to have been a complacent mess, and awfully similar to the last years of Fergie onwards at Man U.

1.) 30 Jun 2023
30 Jun 2023 20:45:38
Neil ruddock and Paul Ince were quality mate. Brad freidel became a very very good keeper too, not great for us.
But yeah we wasted a hell of a lot of money on some average players.

{Ed025's Note - Ruddock quality Magico?, a big lump of lard who got very lucky for me mate..

2.) 30 Jun 2023
30 Jun 2023 21:04:56
Didn’t Molby sign in 88?

3.) 30 Jun 2023
30 Jun 2023 21:09:53
Well I wouldn’t say that we didn’t make some good first team signings, many didn’t work out but at the time they were looked upon as good buys.
Summer of houghton, Barnes and Beardsley was great business but Kenny really failed to build on that and we suffered because of that (bit like last season) .
Souness came in and tried to change things too quickly by replacing an aging team with some great young players from youth team and outside but he brought some decent ones.
David James was very highly thought of
Dean Saunders was banging the goals in at derby
Mark Wright had been excellent for club and country
Nigel clough was an odd signing but he’d done well at forest
Roy Evans got John Scales who had done well at Wimbledon and Phil Babb who had a good W/ C
Collymore had a great partnership with Fowler in 1st year but was a muppet
Mcateer was a really good wing back in Roys system
Patrick Berger had great strike on him and was a good player
Danny Murphy was very underrated at times
Reidle was an experienced player but had injury issues
Hamann was a very good DM
Many of these didn’t work out but at the time didn’t think any were bad signings.
Keane was set for Blackburn and agreed transfer until Fergie stepped in last minute and Shearer was brought by Blackburn same time we took Saunders and Saunders had better goal record…. hindsight obviously took wrong player….

{Ed025's Note - good knowledge there nutter..

4.) 30 Jun 2023
30 Jun 2023 21:11:27
Magico1234, Ruddock? Sorry, he epitomized the incompetence that was dragging the club thru the 90's, IMO.

{Ed025's Note - im with you oli..

5.) 30 Jun 2023
30 Jun 2023 21:13:57
Ronnie Rosenthal's goals spurred us to a league title, I always thought Mark Walters was a ok signing, Patrik Berger and Danny Murphy also spring to mind. The early 90's had many more bad signings than good ones though.

6.) 30 Jun 2023
30 Jun 2023 21:14:34
Personally loved his attitude on the pitch ed. maybe not the best player but for us I think he gave 100% when available. Certainly better than julian dicks. Expected a lot from him too. But yeah we had some complete rubbish.

{Ed025's Note - i thought he epitomized everything that was wrong with liverpool in the 90,s Magico mate..

7.) 30 Jun 2023
30 Jun 2023 21:22:46
Omg 84 molby ( what a summer) soz for the guesswork.

8.) 30 Jun 2023
30 Jun 2023 21:25:40
Karl Heinze riedle was underrated, leonhardersen wasn't bad and paddy Berger was a fantastic signing especially for the females of Liverpool.

9.) 30 Jun 2023
30 Jun 2023 21:35:06
Hard not to agree. There were a few good signings like Patrick Berger, Rob Jones, arguably Ince as well. But so much un-coordinated dross. Keane turned us down because he felt Utd were on the way up. He could have changed things back in our favour. Houllier was the manager who started improving matters after spending the 90s in the doldrums.

10.) 30 Jun 2023
30 Jun 2023 21:43:07
With you there, Ed25. He and Dicks were poor signings. Giving 100% will never cover your deficiencies when going against the best in your position. That just means you're playing hard while the others are playing smart. I know the type of player I would want.

{Ed025's Note - spot on oli..

11.) 30 Jun 2023
30 Jun 2023 21:43:13
We were held back for years under Moore’s and Parry.

12.) 30 Jun 2023
30 Jun 2023 23:36:56
@nutter
Karl Heinz reidle
I loved him growing up even kicked off until I got all black boots the same as him.

13.) 01 Jul 2023
01 Jul 2023 02:35:33
Not sure when he signed. But the original mcallister was a quality signing.

14.) 01 Jul 2023
01 Jul 2023 02:44:15
Look, I was fond of Reidle too - but he was about as useful as Morientes. We had a dreadful approach to signings- eg signing Millwall’s Mark Kennedy after he had a decent game against us. Something at the club went horribly wrong with recruitment ‘87-99, and I am not sure we can blame the managers from that era for that. Big question: who should have stepped in as manager after Kenny stood down in ‘91? Slim pickings….

15.) 01 Jul 2023
30 Jun 2023 22:23:19
Love all those responses - particularly from 025. Huge crossover with Everton and LFC chucking their money in the wrong place since late 80s….

16.) 01 Jul 2023
01 Jul 2023 08:18:31
Molby was signed in 84 to replace Souness, John. Souness went to Sampdoria and we bought Molby from Ajax, I think. He was still a kid though, a bloody big one, and didn't play that regularly. You could see his class but it was an uneviable task for anyone replacing Souness.
Especially for a teenager.

17.) 01 Jul 2023
01 Jul 2023 08:26:19
Added- Jan Molby was 21 when he signed. I always thought he was 19 when we got him. Apologies.
He got more of a chance when Dalglish took over but that could also be down to Molby settling in more to the English game and the team adapting to the loss of Souness. Dalglish did bring in a few midfielders, too.

18.) 01 Jul 2023
01 Jul 2023 08:52:58
Nutter fair play! - good memory. I remember all of it when you say it, but some of that just wouldn’t have sprung to mind. I used to live Saunders when I was young, what was I thinking!

19.) 01 Jul 2023
01 Jul 2023 09:23:46
Who can forget Houllier’s first signing - John Michel Ferri.

W
T
F.

20.) 01 Jul 2023
01 Jul 2023 10:56:18
Jan Molby, had a wand of a foot - an absolute great pass on him, loved watching him tbh.

{Ed025's Note - great player bill, proved you dont have to be a stick insect if you have a good brain mate..

21.) 01 Jul 2023
01 Jul 2023 11:28:38
Jan Molby signed in August 1984, the same summer Souness left .