The ECHO's Liverpool writers take a look at some club-record arrivals and the excitement that surrounded them as the Reds continue to thrash out a deal for Florian Wirtz
Wirtz and Van Dijk coud soon be team-mates (Photo by Marvin Ibo Guengoer - GES Sportfoto/Getty Images)
When a club-record fee is committed to sign a new player, there is inevitably excitement among Liverpool's fanbase. So it's entirely understandable to see supporters beginning to whet their appetite at the thought of Florian Wirtz arriving from Bayer Leverkusen for a sum that could even break the British transfer record itself.
The Reds, as has been extensively covered on the ECHO's pages, are in high-level talks with Leverkusen to potentially make the Germany international the costliest player ever on Merseyside. A bid of £109m was turned down last week and negotiations between sporting director Richard Hughes and Leverkusen counterpart Simon Rolfes go on in the hope of thrashing out an agreement.
So, in the spirit of big-money deals and eye-watering fees, the ECHO's Reds writers have taken a look back at previous arrivals. A club-record deal doesn't always equate to instant success but these players certainly lived up to their billing.
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Paul Gorst
Had Liverpool got their way, Virgil van Dijk would have arrived at Anfield much sooner and a lot cheaper.
But after repairing relations with Southampton in the second half of 2017, after being threatened to be reported for tapping up the Dutchman in the summer of that year, a blockbuster £75m deal was struck at the start of 2018.
And while fans might have had to wait for the big man, he has been worth every penny since.
Van Dijk was signed to tighten up a leaky defence under Jurgen Klopp and there was plenty of excitement upon his arrival after a long pursuit to bring him in. And the centre-half has exceeded all expectations during his time on Merseyside.
The No.4 was as close to a transformational signing as is possible in the modern era and having lost Philippe Coutinho in the same month of January 2018, the Reds didn't miss a beat and instead surged their way to a Champions League final before winning the thing itself the following year in Madrid.
The Premier League was then ticked off in 2020 as the Reds ended their 30-year wait for title No.19 and Van Dijk, en route to that historic success, finished second in the Ballon d'Or rankings, pipped only by a certain Lionel Messi.
Stick a partner - any partner - next to Van Dijk and he has inspired career-level performances from them. Be it Dejan Lovren, Joe Gomez or Joel Matip, the Dutch colossus has helped improve all his colleagues along the way and the same can be said now of Ibrahima Konate.
A winning goal in a Carabao Cup final was fitting reward for his Wembley display in 2024 and Van Dijk was one of the standout players from the side that cantered to the Premier League title this time out by 10 points. He is the perfect modern captain.
Signed up for another two years, Liverpool have one of the best centre-halves in world football leading them out for the next couple of seasons and a player who has justified every last penny of that £75m.
After 319 appearances for the Reds, Van Dijk's status as one of the finest defenders to ever turn out for the club has been secure for some time. A legend in his own time.
Ian Doyle
There can be absolutely no doubt over who Liverpool's best record buy has been, given nobody has had the same wide-ranging impact as a player and then manager on the club as Kenny Dalglish.
That, though, is a bit before even my time. And it's also worth remembering that while the likes of Ian St John, Emlyn Hughes, John Toshack, Ray Kennedy, Peter Beardsley and, up to the present day, Mohamed Salah all became huge successes, it would be stretching matters somewhat to say they were regarded as immediately transformative record signings.
Virgil van Dijk could be regarded one, but in some ways the edge of the anticipation was taken off a touch with the knowledge his arrival was almost certainly imminent months before his signing was officially made complete.
There was, though, real excitement back in 1995 when Stan Collymore was persuaded to move from Nottingham Forest to Liverpool for £8.5million, a British record fee at the time.
Collymore had been in outstanding form for Forest and was fast, strong, intelligent and both a creator and scorer of goals, and was seen as the perfect foil for Robbie Fowler.
There were plenty of goals in his first season. But even then problems were beginning to bubble to the surface before boiling over the following campaign, Collymore - perhaps correctly - questioning whether the Reds truly knew how best to embrace his talents, while the awareness and education regards the importance of mental health isn't as it is today.
Collymore departed less than two years after arriving following 35 goals and 16 assists in 81 games. Hardly awful, but it didn't quite match the excitement of his arrival.
Theo Squires
The excitement when Liverpool signed Fernando Torres in the summer of 2007 was next level. The Reds had been taken over by Tom Hicks and George Gillett the previous February, and while it would not take long for their Anfield ownership to become a farce, back then they were determined to send out a statement in their first transfer window in charge.
Beaten Champions League finalists that year, the Reds wanted to move to the next level under Rafa Benitez. Signing Torres certainly helped deliver on that.
The 23-year-old was a highly-sought after forward who had been linked with all the elite clubs across Europe. For Liverpool to land his signature in a record £20m deal was definitely a transfer coup.
Signing Torres from Atletico Madrid was the most high-profile Reds transfer in years. And he wasted no time in justifying such a fee, stunning Chelsea on his Anfield debut as he left their defence for dead before going on to score 33 goals in his maiden campaign as he became a firm fan-favourite.
Alas, Liverpool would fall just short of claiming the biggest prizes with Torres leading the line. They were knocked out by Chelsea in the Champions League semi-finals in his first season, and finished runners-up to Manchester United in the Premier League in his second campaign before things started to fall apart under Hicks and Gillett.
Injuries would also take their toll on the forward, before he eventually left in unceremonious circumstances to join Chelsea in a record £50m deal in January 2011 having never won any silverware at Anfield. His talent deserved more.
After leaving, it quickly became clear he was now a pale imitation of his best self. But at his peak, Liverpool boasted the best centre-forward in world football as Torres delivered on that initial supporter excitement.
With the Reds again in the market for a new number nine this summer, one only hopes they can go on to have a similar impact.