08 Jul 2018 20:03:07
Whilst we are in the midst of this transfer window, a question to folk out there. Which transfer buy has given you most excitement only to then go on and disappoint you the most.

Then, conversely, which transfer buy has underwhelmed you and then gone on to have the opposite affect.

Mine would be Harry Kewell, for biggest disappointment and for shutting me up, big time, and proving my ignorance of foreign footballers, Sami Hyppia.

If you have a minute, Ed001, I would be interested to hear your picks, given your indepth knowledge of players, both in this country and abroad.

{Ed001's Note - has to be Fernando Morientes, he was a spent force when he joined us unfortunately, there were quite a few to pick from, but most of the rest, such as Litmanen, just never got the chances to show what they could do. Morientes was just awful for us.

There can only be one who proved himself to be so much better than I expected and that is Steve Finnan. He just got better and better and better.}

1.) 08 Jul 2018
08 Jul 2018 20:37:11
My answer to this question must change every time because there are so many options for each question.

I'll go with Sahin for the disapointnent, and Milner for the nice surprise after his last season.

2.) 08 Jul 2018
08 Jul 2018 20:41:19
Collymore was a huge dissapontment, he was awesome for forest but like so many of our signings he couldn't deal with the size of the club and the style of play (the team rightly focused on Fowler) .

Benayoun played well in red shirt, I was a bit underwhelmed with his signing but Finnan was awesome - a very good example of a player upping his level on a consistent basis and rising to the challenge.

3.) 08 Jul 2018
08 Jul 2018 20:40:33
Best right back we’ve had since rob jones for me ed!

Was excited we signed aqualanni *spelling but man did he flop injuries etc.

{Ed001's Note - agreed mate, Finnan was magnificent.

I am surprised you were excited by Aquaman, most people had no idea who he was when he joined, including Rafa! He placed too much faith in his scouts and had not even seen him play properly before signing him. When he took a look at him in training, he realised he had been sold a pup.}

4.) 08 Jul 2018
08 Jul 2018 20:44:48
El hadji diouf, salif diao, Bruno cheyrou were terrible, I loved the Gary McAllister signing and I loved Marcus babbel when he was fit too play such a shame he suffered with illness, ziege was disappointing as well.

5.) 08 Jul 2018
08 Jul 2018 20:55:09
Charlie Adam, I thought he'd do really well with us but how wrong was I. As MK says, there's so many we could pick though.

It's hard to look past Finnan for the most exciting but to change it a bit I'll go with Alonso, I really never expected him to be all that great when he joined and didn't think the league would suit him but he took it by storm and did incredible.

6.) 08 Jul 2018
08 Jul 2018 20:55:33
Morientes and kewell are amazing shouts, ryan Babel was another one for me, had great potential and an air if excitement when he signed but never fulfilled his wonderkid rap. Gary McAllister for his one season of wonder needs to be up there for most overwhelming players. I honestly thought houllier had gone mad when he brought him in.

7.) 08 Jul 2018
08 Jul 2018 21:12:01
Ballotelli has to have a shout for biggest let down. Most surprising one is harder. Mane and robbo in modern times. Alonso. Hypia is a very good shout thought.

8.) 08 Jul 2018
08 Jul 2018 21:23:41
Ryan Babel broke my heart. So much so I’m still hoping he will somehow come good for us. As for surprise dirk kuyt. When he came in I thought he wasn’t at all what we needed. I’d been following the dutch league and thought he was an average striker. It took me almost a season to realize what he brought to the team. One of my all time favorite players. Honorable mention for disappointment in Robbie Keane and salif diao.

9.) 08 Jul 2018
08 Jul 2018 21:24:38
Just got to add, great post Istanbul.

10.) 08 Jul 2018
08 Jul 2018 21:32:18
Mark Gonzalez

Took so long for a work permit at he was the man to break the winger curse we had sadly only broke our hearts.

11.) 08 Jul 2018
08 Jul 2018 21:44:30
Most disappointed of me was Paul Ince, thought he would push the team on and give us some steel in the middle of the park. The Player I was unsure of was Garry Macallister, didn’t think he could add anything to the team at his age. how wrong was I.

12.) 08 Jul 2018
08 Jul 2018 22:04:20
Biggest disappointment for me was a lad called Kenny Dalglish. Expected so much from him but he failed miserably. Didn't expect anything from that Dundee lad but he has become a legend!

13.) 08 Jul 2018
08 Jul 2018 22:18:05
A personal disappointment for me was when we signed Christian Poulsen. I grew up watching FC Copenhagen play and he was immense for them back in 2000 and a few years forward and I also followed him closely with our national team where he did good.

In 2010 his best years were long behind him, so the proud feeling of having yet another dane coming to Liverpool along with the unbearable feeling of knowing he was never going to succeed at Liverpool, let alone succeed at replacing Mascherano - and the fact that he did indeed not succeed - it was truly a great disappointment.

14.) 08 Jul 2018
08 Jul 2018 22:50:00
Has to be Djibril Cissé for me I thought he was really going push us on he had pace power and an eye for a goal so I thought so that and a surprise package was agger loved the passion that guy had pity injuries took there toll.

15.) 09 Jul 2018
08 Jul 2018 23:48:51
Morientes is the obvious one. When it became apparent that Mikey was off to Madrid, I was desperate for him to be included. Then he arrived after half a season with no football, and I was sure once he got match sharp he'd be lethal for us. Never happened. His problem seemed to be that he was never willing (or maybe not able due to the legs going? ) to put his body on the line to get onto the end of something in the box. It had to be laid precisely on a plate for him.

Robbie Keane was another one. Bear in mind, he hadn't at this point turned into the one dimensional poacher that he ended his career as, and I thought he'd be the ideal foil for Torres, and there was one or two games where a partnership was starting to develop. But, well, off-pitch issues.

And then here's a left field one. I might have been off my meds at the time, but I thought Christian Poulsen might do a respectable job for us. Reputation as a hard tackling (and occasionally hard punching) defensive midfielder who had a bit of technique to back it up. Could fill the gap that Mascherano left when he flounced off to Barca, at least short-term. But he looked miles off the pace and did little other than needlessly keep the far more able Lucas out of the side for a handful of games.

16.) 09 Jul 2018
09 Jul 2018 03:58:04
Finnan was a surprising signing and he was surprisingly good but you would never gave said it was an exciting signing. Well they're all exciting but finnan wasn't overly exciting.

Torres must be one of the most exciting signings.

17.) 09 Jul 2018
09 Jul 2018 04:20:03
Agree with most mentioned on here. Riese was a surprise success for me, Karl Heinz riedle was a bit of a disappointment. I also think Heskey we spent a lot of money on and could be a monster on his day but he didn’t seem to improve much from his early promise and was so inconsistent.

18.) 09 Jul 2018
09 Jul 2018 08:06:35
Andy Carroll as the biggest disappointment - having just lost Torres to Chelsea and looking for a player to fill the gap I'd heard we'd been close to David Villa and a few other similarly high class players. We ended up signing an alcoholic carthorse for what was, at the time, an astronomical fee far beyond his value.

Torres would be my pick. It wasn't that I was underwhelmed by his signing - he was well regarded in Europe - but he was a young lad coming from the Spanish league in which, though he performed well, didn't have the greatest goal scoring record. Add to that we had, in previous seasons, a succession of forward players who couldn't quite cut it (Cisse, Morientes, etc etc) and my expectations were pretty low. He hit the ground running and proved to be one of the best players I had seen in a red jersey. Shame he left the way he did, but i'll always have fond memories of his goal scoring exploits.

19.) 09 Jul 2018
09 Jul 2018 09:43:18
Aquilani for me as a surprise flop. He looked like a fantastic player. Thought he would develop as well as Modric has done now.
Surprise for me was Xabi Alonso. Never saw him play till he joined Liverpool.

20.) 09 Jul 2018
09 Jul 2018 11:04:20
Firmino has to be up there for better than expected, bought as an attacking midfielder to be our number 9 and key to everything we do.

21.) 09 Jul 2018
09 Jul 2018 11:05:35
Jari was potentially going to be great. I wish he had the chance to show it.

Poor Auqa man, that’s all I say on it, except he was no Gareth Barry.

22.) 09 Jul 2018
09 Jul 2018 11:07:05
Many thanks for your picks, Ed. You are bang on regards to Morientes. I salivated when we signed him and he turned out to be a dud.

Litmanen was, in my opinion, so unfairly treated. Interestingly enough, Alyson Rudd, of the Times when asked to choose the best player she had ever seen, said Litmanen. I remember watching him make his debut, I think, down the Villa and he was sheer class. Just a pity he never got a proper chance.

Thanks again.

23.) 09 Jul 2018
09 Jul 2018 11:15:47
Thanks for your kind words aoe. All the best to you, mate. And thanks to everyone for chipping in. All good fun.

24.) 09 Jul 2018
09 Jul 2018 11:32:56
Can’t add anything to the ones ever so I’ll do it on current squad. Best surprise either robbo or the ox and let down Clyne. Only ever watched him occasionally on motd and you can see why he’d look half decent on a highlights reel. Good pace and only ever saw the 1 out of a 100 crosses that were decent

You could argue salah although I was excited when we signed but never imagined he would be this good.

25.) 09 Jul 2018
09 Jul 2018 12:44:48
Julian Dicks was a dissapointment in my eyes. Kenny Dalglish was the biggest suprise as at the time I just could not see that Kevin Keegan could ever be replaced.

26.) 09 Jul 2018
09 Jul 2018 16:28:40
When Litmanen did get the odd chance he showed his class. I really liked him.