'Astonishing period' - Clive Tyldesley hails Liverpool's 'golden recruitment' that brought huge success

Legendary football commentator Clive Tyldesley has hailed Liverpool for their golden period of recruitment which set them up for Premier League and Champions League successes.

Jurgen Klopp reached the Europa League final in his first year in charge, then qualified for the Champions League in his second season, before then adding Mohamed Salah (summer of 2017), Virgil van Dijk (January 2018) and Alisson Becker (summer of 2018) within a year.

All three cost a combined £175m in total, but given that they've gone onto play a combined 799 games and play vital roles in six trophies make that figure look like a bargain.

Their transfer policy under the careful watch of former director of football Michael Edwards saw them acquire a whole host of players for respectable prices who went on to become far greater than anyone expected.

Speaking to the Anfield Wrap, Tyldesley praised that run of transfers in the 12 months around 2017 and 2018 which led them to huge successes under Klopp, in what he called an 'astonishing period'.

"Liverpool went through perhaps the most golden, well 12 or 18 months of recruitment that I've known from any club in modern times.

"If Salah, Alisson and [Virgil] Van Dijk; I don't care if you've paid £200m for each of them, you've got your moneys worth.

"For those three to land and make the impact that they have on the world of football, let alone on Merseyside, I mean that was an astonishing period."

With the modern game intertwined with so much money, finding a 'bargain' in the transfer market has become increasingly difficult, and the fees we've seen thrown around in the past 12-18 months have only gone on to highlight just how good their business was under Edwards during that time.

There was also the likes of Fabinho (£44m), Andy Robertson (£7m), Diogo Jota (£40m), Sadio Mane (£36m), Roberto Firmino (£29m), Joel Matip (free) and Giorginio Wijnaldum (£25m) who all helped to make Liverpool the force they were.

Recent big spending has brought Darwin Nunez (£64m) and Dominik Szoboszlai (£60m) to the club, and both have become key players, but there was also the £35m signing of Alexis Mac Allister which was very much a deal that Edwards would have been proud of which shows they are still prudent in an ever-expanding market.