Jamie Carragher has admitted Liverpool's transfer business during his playing days left them behind the Premier League's big guns.
Liverpool spent big in the late 1990s and early 2000s, keeping the pace with the sides at the top of the division, but struggled to break into the pack of title chasing sides.
The issue, according to Carragher, was that Arsenal would nab the likes of Thierry Henry, who went on to be their top scorer ever, for £11million and spend £6m on Robert Pires. Liverpool would splash out the same on Emile Heskey and Nick Barmby respectively.
The former defender highlighted the difference between his manager Gerard Houllier and then-Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger in the transfer market.
Carragher told Sky Sports: 'I think we were spending similar to Arsenal, and the big difference between [Gerard] Houllier and Arsene Wenger, though I adore Houllier, Wenger was a genius in the transfer market.
'We signed Emile Heskey for £11 million, Wenger signed Henry for £11m. If we signed Nick Barmby for £6m, they signed Robert Pires for £6m.
'They also got Sol Campbell on a free at that time. They just became superstars, whereas ours became very good players.
'You see Christian Ziege; I think he was possibly the highest paid player in the Premier League and it felt like the end of him playing left-back for Liverpool (when he made errors in a 4-3 loss to Leeds), and he ended up playing left midfield.'
Carragher also highlighted the disparity between a team that invested like Liverpool and Manchester United, who had even more money to spend at that time.
He continued: 'I think at that time, if things didn't go well for Man United, they had an ability to spend big.
'Like Rio Ferdinand for £30m in the summer of 2002 after Arsenal won the league. For us, we'd spend that money on four players, and you needed them all to work.'