Jamie Carragher has applauded the ingenuity of Arsene Wenger in the transfer market as Arsenal beat Liverpool to the Premier League title in the 1990s and 2000s.
The Reds legend was speaking to Sky Sports and he admitted that the difference between Liverpool and Arsenal in that period which saw that Arsenal team battle with Manchester United for the dominance of the English game was their recruitment.
He hailed the signing of Thierry Henry who would go on to become one of the Premier League’s best scoring imports.
Intriguingly, Henry was signed for the same amount that Liverpool signed Emile Heskey and the former England striker would never have the same impact that Henry had in the Premier League.
He also compared then Liverpool manager, Gerard Houllier splashing £6 million on Nick Barmby while Arsene Wenger spent the same amount on Robert Pires who would go on to become a Premier League legend.
Carragher told Sky Sports: ‘I think we were spending similar to Arsenal, and the big difference between [Gerard] Houllier and Arsene Wenger, though I adore Houllier, Wenger was a genius in the transfer market.
‘We signed Emile Heskey for £11 million, Wenger signed Henry for £11m. If we signed Nick Barmby for £6m, they signed Robert Pires for £6m.
‘They also got Sol Campbell on a free at that time. They just became superstars, whereas ours became very good players.
‘You see Christian Ziege; I think he was possibly the highest-paid player in the Premier League and it felt like the end of him playing left-back for Liverpool (when he made errors in a 4-3 loss to Leeds), and he ended up playing left midfield.’
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Nice!! 👍