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Liverpool Echo
Liverpool Echo
Sport
Chris Watson

Jamie Carragher picks £2.6m signing as top Liverpool Premier League transfer

Jamie Carragher has named his best Liverpool signings of the Premier League era.

Carragher picked his top five transfers as part of a discussion with fellow pundit Gary Neville on Sky Sports' Monday Night Football programme.

Perhaps not surprisingly, three members of Jurgen Klopp's current squad feature, along with two of his former team-mates.

Virgil van Dijk, Andy Robertson and Mohamed Salah all got the nod from Carragher after helping Liverpool end their 30-year wait for a league title last season.

Luis Suarez also features on the list - but top spot went to Carragher's one-time central defensive partner Sami Hyypia.

Hyypia joined the Reds from Dutch side Willem II in 1999 for a fee of £2.6million.

The former Finland international went on to enjoy a successful decade-long career at Anfield, winning the Champions League, UEFA Cup, two FA Cups and two League Cups.

"Sami is right at the top for me," said Carragher. "When I think of where Liverpool were in 1999, they were a team finishing in sixth and seventh.

"They were thought of as a weak team and got bullied. Sami came in, played for 10 years and was never injured.

"Liverpool went from being known as a soft touch to a team who were mentally and physically very strong, and he was a massive part of that.

"The success we had over the next ten years with Gerard Houllier and Rafa Benitez was built on defence and solidity, and that started with Hyypia's signing.

"So when you consider the price tag, never being injured, the ten years service he gave and the trophies he won, I put Sami as number one."

Neville expressed some surprise that his colleague had picked Hyypia over Van Dijk.

Carragher responded: "Sami's not a better player than Virgil van Dijk, but Van Dijk was a world record transfer fee for a defender - you're expecting that impact.

"No one had heard of Sami Hyypia. The impact he had was instrumental."

Neville disagreed with Carragher on some of his selections, saying: "I'd have Gini Wijnaldum, Jordan Henderson, Mo Salah and Sadio Mane in before some of those that you had."

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