While Mohamed Salah’s long career at Anfield is uncertain, history shows that no one is bigger than Liverpool.
A look at their records beyond shows that they’ve managed to update almost every single one of the best goalscorers they’ve ever had. Fast forward to the past in the 1960s and early 1970s, Bill Shankly dismantled his first great team and turned his attention to Kop legends, Ian St. John. John and Roger Hunt.
He signed Kevin Keegan in 1971 and the England striker enjoyed six golden years at Liverpool before moving to SV Hamburg after helping them win their first European Cup. Keegan had told Liverpool a few months earlier that he didn’t need to sign a new contract because he wanted to move and the club replaced him with Kenny Dalglish in 1977.
Dalglish helped Liverpool reach even more wonderful heights with Bob Paisley and Joe Fagan before passing the baton to goalkeeper Ian Rush in the early 1980s. The two played in combination in one of Liverpool and Rush’s wonderful attacking partnerships it was activated from the moment Dalglish won the ball. , since he knew that he would locate him.
When Rush came to an end in the early 1990s, Liverpool found a new goalscoring hero in Robbie Fowler, who burst onto the scene in 1993, scoring five goals against Fulham at the age of 18. Fowler got the credit he deserves and scored at least 30 goals in his first 3 full seasons, breaking record after record.
He was never the same when he suffered a torn ACL in 1998 and when he returned, Liverpool had a new, young goalscoring hero in Michael Owen. Gérard Houllier disliked Fowler and gradually undermined him in the eyes of his adored fans, who nicknamed him God, forcing his sale to Leeds in 2001.
At the time, Owen was at his best with Liverpool, playing in the 2001 FA Cup final scoring twice. He helped Liverpool win a treble of the League Cup, FA Cup and UEFA Cup and won the Ballon d’Or that year.
Houllier liked Owen, but when the Frenchman was sacked in 2004, the new Rafa Benitez did not reciprocate his affection. Owen was reluctant to sign a new deal when Real Madrid replaced him and Benitez sanctioned his sale.
Liverpool struggled to update Owen’s goals and Benitez didn’t like Houllier’s new signing, Djibril Cissé, but the Reds still managed to win the Champions League in 2005 and the FA Cup the following year. Benitez got the striker he craved when Liverpool made Fernando Torres their record £20 million signing in 2007.
The Spaniard came close to using them in the name in 2009 before Benitez was sacked in 2010 and his targets ran out. Liverpool sold Torres to Chelsea for a record £50m in 2011 and spent that money on Andy Carroll and Luis Suarez. Missed from 35 metres, but Suarez was a huge success, almost bringing Liverpool to fame in 2014.
He left in 2015 when Barcelona were called up after scoring 82 goals in 133 appearances and Liverpool first struggled to update him. That was updated in 2016 when they signed Sadio Mane and a year later with the arrival of Salah.
Jurgen Klopp deployed them alongside Roberto Firmino in one of Liverpool’s legendary peak attacks and led the Reds to the Champions League in 2019 and the title the following year.
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