The spine of the team that he signed (Reina, Agger, Mascherano, Alonso, Torres - for around 60m) along with what was already there (Carra, Gerrard) was undeniably the best we've had in two decades. Kuyt has also served well for 9m. Keane, Babel and Aquilani (the version when injured, not the current version), were expensive mistakes but all the top managers make those, hardly a ground-breaking revelation.