Many Liverpool fans were a tad surprised when the club splashed £41m to sign Diogo Jota from Wolves this summer.

The price of the deal could rise as high as £45m with add-ons, but the Portuguese has already made that fee look like a bargain in his short time with the Reds.

In his first 10 appearances in all competitions, Jota has scored seven goals, notching his first Liverpool hat-trick in last night’s 5-0 win away at Atalanta.

The numbers speak for themselves and the Portuguese is the 10th brilliant signing to be made by the club since Michael Edwards was appointed as a sporting director in 2016.

Edwards – who rarely makes public appearances – is a very popular figure among fans thanks to his expertise in the transfer market.

Let’s take a look at the 10 incredible transfers he’s managed to pull off…

Edwards’ four-year transfer masterclass

Sadio Mane | £37m

Joel Matip | Free

Gini Wijnaldum | £25m

Mohamed Salah | £38m

Andy Robertson | £8m

Virgil van Dijk | £75m

Fabinho | £40m

Alisson Becker | £67m

Thiago Alcantara | £25m

Jota | £45m

Essentially, Edwards is one of the key men behind the creation of the awesome Liverpool team we’ve seen over the last few years.

Had it not been for the sporting director’s impact over the club’s transfer strategy, the Reds and Jurgen Klopp may not have won both the Champions League and the Premier League.

Edwards has also secured the signings of Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain (£35m), Xherdan Shaqiri (£13m), Naby Keita (£53m), Adrian (free), Konstantinos Tsimikas (£11m) and Takumi Minamino (£7.25m) over the past four years.

While they’re nowhere near as good as the 10 aforementioned signings, they are still far from bad.

Edwards has only been responsible for two poor signings during his reign as sporting director; the acquisitions of Loris Karius and Dominic Solanke.

However, the latter only cost the Reds £4m and they were able to sell the English striker to Bournemouth for a fee of around £20m.

We’ll just forget Karius ever happened…