Liverpool are unrecognisable from the football team that Jurgen Klopp picked up from the wayside in 2015. That said, Arne Slot’s Liverpool side have more than a soft semblance to that of his predecessor’s.
Slot inherited a squad of high-class quality, and he’s been afforded that through Klopp’s lasting hot streak in the transfer market, both ruthless and pinpoint with additions and outgoings.
While the Reds have long been lauded for their ability to turn low-priced signings into megastars, there’s praise to be handed out for cashing in on players at just the right time.
Klopp's ruthless sales at Liverpool
Net spend is a term that Liverpool’s Premier League rivals like to scoff at, but there’s something wonderful about the Anfield side’s ability to collect hefty sums for disused parts and reinvest in what, in hindsight, proves to be a significant upgrade.
Be it Southampton’s £20m purchase of Danny Ings in July 2019, a forward who had never really got going on Merseyside, or the £19m sale of Dominic Solanke to Bournemouth, now a high-profile star with Tottenham Hotspur, signing for £65m this summer in what saw prudent Liverpool claim a sizeable sell-on fee.
While we’re talking of strikers, Christian Benteke, who has just beaten Lionel Messi to the 2024 Major League Soccer season’s top scorer, was sold to Crystal Palace for £27m under Klopp’s wing, despite a middling year at Anfield after joining from Aston Villa.
1.
Christian Benteke
30
33
2.
Lionel Messi
19
20
2=
Luis Suarez
27
20
2=
Denis Bouanga
32
20
5.
Cucho Hernandez
27
19
Forwards weren’t the only ones that Liverpool were able to shoo out the door for a healthy sum. Indeed, Mamadou Sakho was a polarising figure at Anfield, but he was sold for a pretty penny in the early phase of Klopp’s Reds tenure.
Mamadou Sakho was sold at the perfect time
It’s been more than a decade since Liverpool completed the £16m signing of Sakho from French giants Paris Saint-Germain. It was a coup: the Frenchman had been bestowed the Young Player of the Year award in France during 2010/11 and had also become the youngest captain in PSG’s history, wearing the armband aged just 17.
Brendan Rodgers had described him as a “monster in training”, and in fairness, there was plenty to admire about the centre-half, whose muscular physique and ball-playing ability set him apart from the lion’s share of up-and-coming Premier League defenders.
While Sakho had played a central part in Liverpool’s football prior to Klopp’s arrival, the German tactician was not a fan and ostracised him from first-team action following numerous disciplinary issues, only fielding him 29 times across the almost two seasons that the pair’s paths crossed.
Thus, it’s quite something that Klopp and Michael Edwards were able to get Crystal Palace to play to the tune of £26m in 2017, with the Eagles indeed purchasing the former France international after he spent time on loan at Selhurst Park during the 2016/17 season for a £2m fee.
It was the perfect time to sell Sakho, who made 64 Premier League appearances over four years for the south Londoners but of which just 18 came over the final two years.
Now, according to Football Transfers, the 34-year-old is worth just £300k marking a steep decline in the years since he plied his trade at Liverpool.
Once hailed as a ‘monster’ by his Liverpool boss, Sakho would have been a detriment to Klopp’s illustrious reign – but then, isn’t that why he was swiftly sold?
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