Top 5
Pundits pick Premier League’s best signings
Football is a game of opinions and former Liverpool defender turned Sky Sports pundit Jamie Carragher has more than most.
“I am always reluctant to definitively declare anyone or anything is ‘the best ever.’ It can only be a matter of opinion,” he wrote in his Daily Telegraph column ahead of Liverpool travelling to Leicester City last weekend.
“But if you were compiling a list of the greatest, most influential signings and judging it on value for money, who eclipses Vardy?”
Who indeed? Carragher had a few names to add in to the mix.
“We can talk about many transfers which changed the course of Premier League history, such as Eric Cantona joining Manchester United, Dennis Bergkamp to Arsenal, Yaya Toure or David Silva moving to Manchester City, or Virgil van Dijk joining Liverpool,” Carragher wrote.
“They were established, international players and household names heading to clubs already building towards titles – the finishing touch to emerging teams.
“The Vardy story stands alone in that he joined Leicester for £1 million directly from non-league football and defied expectations. Whenever the story of English football is told to future generations, they will talk about Leicester before and after Vardy’s arrival.”
Perhaps, perhaps not but Carragher was right that Liverpool manager would have preferred to face the Foxes without the fleet-footed forward – Vardy scored in the 3-1 win – and the 34-year-old is as important to Leicester now under Brendan Rodgers as he was when they won the title under Claudio Ranieri five years ago.
“That’s one of many reasons why there may never be a better transfer than Vardy’s from Fleetwood Town to Leicester – not just in the Premier League era, but in football history.”
It certainly is an opinion and Carragher was forced to make more when he united with former Manchester United and England defender Gary Neville in the Sky Sports studio for Monday Night Football.
The pair were asked to pick the five best signing for their respective former clubs.
Carragher selected Sami Hyypia, Luis Suarez, Andy Robertson, Mohamed Salah and Virgil van Dijk for Liverpool.
Neville went for Eric Cantona, Roy Keane, Cristiano Ronaldo, Wayne Rooney and Nemanja Vidic at Manchester United.
Then they got to the all important business of selecting the best five signings in English Premier League history.
Vardy was joined by Cantona, Manchester City’s Vincent Kompany, Arsenal’s Thierry Henry and Blackburn Rovers signing Alan Shearer from Southampton.
“I think those five are right,” Neville affirmed. “Those five, the impact they had on those clubs. We cannot imagine – Leicester winning the league!”
Carragher continued the love-in for Leicester’s leading scorer.
“Vardy has been there the longest [at Leicester] – and was the Golden Boot winner last year.”
While the ex-Liverpool man backed in print and on screen, Neville differed as to who was No.1.
“I think Cantona is the most iconic Premier League signing, in terms of what he did to Manchester United, the Premier League record they had after winning it that first time,” Neville said
Were they right? Plenty of fans of rival al clubs have responded with their own takes and questioned how players such as Cristiano Ronaldo and Frank Lampard have missed out but here are the cases for those who made the cut.