After an exciting transfer window that has, so far, seen Liverpool make impressive signings in the form of Fabinho, Xherdan Shaqiri and Alisson Becker (in addition to Naby Keita finally joining the club following an agreed deal last summer), the attention this week has turned to which players the club are going to sell.
Having already raked in a surprising (but very welcome) £12.5m for Danny Ward in the last week, the Reds will apparently look to offload up to seven players between now and the 9th August.
According to various media outlets, sporting director Michael Edwards will be charged with finding buyers and negotiating sales for Simon Mignolet, Divock Origi, Danny Ings, Sheyi Ojo, Lazar Markovic, Pedro Chirivella and possibly Marko Grujic.
In truth, those names being linked with moves away from the club are not so surprising, with the possible exception of Grujic (who the club apparently would prefer to loan as opposed to selling permanently). However, it is more the figures that are reportedly being asked for by the club for the players which have attracted the most attention.
£5m for Chirivella, £7m for Markovic and between £12m – £15m for Mignolet would be seen by most as fair prices in today’s market (you could even argue that having been the Liverpool no.1 for such a long period of time that Mignolet could rightly command a higher fee), but the rumoured price tags for Ojo (£15m), Grujic (£20m), Ings (£20m) and Origi (£27m!) have certainly raised some eyebrows.
With Ojo and Grujic both being young players who have struggled to make the breakthrough at the club, asking £15m+ for both of them would be seen, by many, as optimistic. Especially in the case of Ojo, who has done little to justify a hefty price tag, even in today’s inflated market.
Danny Ings has been at the club for three years and in that time, he has spent the best part of two seasons injured and as a result, has only scored four goals for the club. For all of his hard work and admirable attitude in overcoming these hurdles to work his way back to fitness, the injuries have undoubtedly affected his salability as they justifiably place a question mark over him.
Then we have Divock Origi, who showed promise when he initially signed for the club but has seemingly not been the same player since being injured in the Merseyside derby against Everton in April 2016 and has subsequently struggled to fulfil his early promise. An unimpressive loan at Wolfsburg last season and some equally questionable performances recently (albeit only in pre-season friendlies) have done little to convince Liverpool supporters that he has a future at the club or that he could command a substantial transfer fee.
However, despite fans’ misgivings about these transfer figures, a shift in mentality towards the abilities of Edwards as the sporting director has led to many supporters believing that if anybody can do it, Edwards can!
It wasn’t all that long ago that supporters felt more than a little underwhelmed by Edwards’ promotion into this role, born out of the sour taste that developed in the ‘Brendan Rodgers vs Committee’ transfer squabbles of previous years and the yearning for a negotiator in the Monchi mould. However, now the attitude towards him is very different – he has earned supporters’ trust and is actually developing something of a cult hero status amongst large sections of the fanbase.
With an increasingly positive reputation that has been fuelled by securing the signatures of a number of sought-after players since Jurgen Klopp joined the club who have gone on to become integral members of the squad, Edwards has enhanced this reputation even further this summer with the exciting additions made to the squad.
Equally as impressive – if not more so – over this period has been the club’s ability to sell players and the fees that have been received for many of those players. Upwards of £27m recouped when selling Christian Benteke to Crystal Palace was masterful given the striker’s unimpressive spell at the club, £26m acquired again from Crystal Palace for Mamadou Sakho (who was surrounded by controversy at the time), £15m gratefully received from Bournemouth for the talented yet inconsistent Jordan Ibe, a further £6m also from Bournemouth in the bank for Brad Smith who had made a grand total of 11 appearances for the club, and not forgetting the £8m that Hull paid for utility player Kevin Stewart in what was essentially a swap deal for our now first choice left back Andrew Robertson!
The above are just some examples of the sales that Edwards has been responsible for and they should be seen as the reason why, despite the initial gasps, doubts and sniggers of many, the figures quoted for our players may not be as unrealistic as they first appear.
Our sporting director is fast gaining a reputation as a tough negotiator who loves a challenge and drives a hard bargain when it comes to buying and selling. Whilst we cannot be 100% sure how accurate these speculated figures are, there’s a very good chance that come August 10th, most, if not all, of the players that the club wanted to sell will be preparing for the new season at different clubs and Edwards will be receiving yet more praise for his ability in the transfer market.
