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Stan Collymore, who joined Liverpool in 1995 for a then British transfer record of £8.5 million ($11.5 million), has offered his take on how Alexander Isak can make people forget about the big fee that his move commanded this summer.
Isak made his debut for Liverpool in the Champions League against Atletico Madrid, putting in a promising performance against Diego Simeone's side. He could make another appearance this weekend in the Merseyside derby and will be keen to make an impression as quickly as possible in order to justify the price tag.
"I think that the difference between breaking the transfer record 30 years ago and now is that it’s hard to adjust for inflation and work out how similar the deals were," Collymore said.
"Kieran Maguire worked out that an inflation-adjusted figure for all the transfers has Alan Shearer at £250 million ($338 million) to Newcastle, and my move to Liverpool was maybe £216m ($293 million), so my transfer fee was really a massive outlier back then in a way that Isak’s isn’t.
"At the time, I was breaking the £7.0 million ($9.5 million) record for Andy Cole to Manchester United from the season before, and maybe Roy Keane before that from Nottingham Forest to Manchester United.
"So, while there are incremental jumps these days, back then the increases were more like leaps, the equivalent of going from £150m to £300m (c. $200 million to $400 million) within the course of a season or two.
"Now, though, I don’t think [the size of the transfer fee] matters. Players are asked less often about their fees in press conferences and at games. Managers don’t get asked much about it either: the focus is more on whether the player is settling in.
"That is because we’re used to such astronomical riches in the Premier League. Those high fees are omnipresent. Look at the top 20 in the Premier League, they’ve all spent big. Birmingham dropped £10 million ($13 million) on Jay Stansfield when they were in the third tier.
"Big fees are just par for the course in England. Look at the top-flight German, Italian and Spanish clubs who are struggling to match the spending of lower-league English sides."
Isak linked well with Florian Wirtz against Atletico Madrid and pressed diligently throughout his 58 minutes on the field. And Collymore says there is no doubt that he will be a success.
"All Isak really needs to do is to get fit," Collymore, speaking to 10bet Casino, continued. "That's the primary thing. And he needs to hit the ground running because if he hits the ground running, Liverpool fans will forget about all the shenanigans with Newcastle.
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"In the same way that Nick Woltemade at Newcastle had an absolute stinker in the international break for Germany, and missed several chances, I was online seeing Geordie's despair. But he scores a header, and he's called the new Alan Shearer.
"It’s going to be about four to six weeks down the line when we’ll know how it’s going for Isak at Liverpool. He’ll be fit and ready to go. Hopefully he'll have had three or four goals under his belt at that stage, and we will be talking about football.
"I’ve seen Florian Wirtz interviewed, and nobody really cared about his transfer fee in the grand scheme of things. That’s just how much money you spend in the Premier League.
"It’s lucky for players, they can just blend into the great amounts of spending from all the clubs. There are so many financial juggernauts in the Premier League that the fees are just baked in. It wasn’t like that for me at Liverpool."
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