Poor Gerard Houllier doesn't come out particularly well (although Roy Evans can shoulder some blame as former joint-manager), having signed five of them in Salif Diao, Erik Meijer, Bruno Cheyrou, Antonio Nunez and Sean Dundee.
Diao was snapped up before World Cup 2002 and enjoyed a fine tournament in Japan and Korea, but Reds didn't see such displays from the limited midfielder. South African-German striker Dundee was the worst of the lot, mind: a £2m arrival to cover for Robbie Fowler in Houllier/Evans' first summer, but who played just three Premier League games and didn't score.
Two of Graeme Souness's shockers make the cut in Danish defender Torben Piechnik and Hungarian midfielder Istvan Kozma, who was signed because of some promising displays for... er, Dunfermline.
More recent Reds managers may count themselves lucky. The spells of Roy Hodgson and Kenny Dalglish (second time) at Anfield were marred by dodgy deals, but many of them did just fine for other Premier League clubs before and after. Christian Poulsen, a £4.5m signing from Juventus believe it or not, did not.
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