One legend of the Jurgen Klopp era at Liverpool has revealed that, as a youngster, he was close to joining Everton for less than £1m.
As far as bargains at Anfield go, there are few (if any) better than the initial £8m which was spent to sign Andy Robertson from Hull City in 2017, with the Scot going on to become one of the world’s best left-backs during his time with the Reds.
He won two Premier League titles, the Champions League and an assortment of other trophies in a nine-year stay in L4 before joining Tottenham Hotspur on a free transfer earlier this year.
Robertson nearly joined Everton for less than £1m
The 32-year-old was the special guest on the latest episode of Stick to Football, and he recalled how he was once the subject of a cut-price bid from Everton during his teenage years at Dundee United in early 2014.
Robertson recalled: “In January, I nearly left. Everton put a bid in for me in the January. Roberto Martinez [then-Toffees manager] came up and actually watched me for Dundee United.
“They wanted to loan me back for six months and then be back-up to Leighton Baines, and then try and be the guy that kinda [becomes first-choice]. That was their plan.”
Explaining why Everton’s bid failed, the Scotland captain said: “I think they bid £750,000. Dundee United, at that point, wanted £1.5m. The manager was kinda saying, ‘I’m not losing him.’
“To be fair, it was a good decision from Dundee United, because they ended up getting £2.85m [from Hull] in the summer, so they ended up getting a bit more.”
Want more Empire of the Kop coverage? Add us as a preferred source on Google to your favourites list for news you can trust
To think that Robertson could easily have been an Everton icon instead!
Considering that Everton famously signed another full-back in Seamus Coleman from Sligo Rovers for just £60,000, it would’ve been no great surprise at the time if they had pulled off a cut-price coup for Robertson when he was a 19-year-old at Dundee United.
The Scot could very easily have become a legend on Merseyside in blue rather than red, but thankfully fate would dictate that it was Liverpool who got the very best out of him over the past decade.
When you think about the illustrious career that Robertson has had, and that he’s changed clubs four times, it seems extraordinary to think that the cumulative transfer fees paid for him in all that time amount to little more than £10m.
| Transfer | Date | Fee |
| Queens Park-Dundee United | June 2013 | free transfer |
| Dundee United-Hull | July 2014 | £2.85m |
| Hull-Liverpool | July 2017 | £8m (£10m with add-ons) |
| Liverpool-Spurs | June 2026 | free transfer |
| TOTAL FEES | £10.85m-£12.5m |
Would he have gone on to become an Everton stalwart just like Coleman if the Toffees’ bid in 2014 had succeded? Would he have earned a big-money move to a Premier League or European giant off the back of his performances for the Toffees?
Thankfully from a Liverpool perspective, those are questions which’ll never have a definitive answer.