With Liverpool in the market for at least one, if not two, more midfielders, and a left-sided centre-back also on their wishlist, this summer will be one of the Reds’ busiest transfer windows.
Alexis Mac Allister has already arrived for a fee believed to be in the region of £35m, with club bosses monitoring a number of players as they weigh up their options ahead of making a move for their second signing of the summer. Should they land the desired three further signings, it will mark the most senior permanent signings Liverpool have made in one window since bringing in Fabinho, Naby Keita, Alisson Becker, and Xherdan Shaqiri in the summer of 2018.
Admittedly, the Reds are unlikely to sanction a repeat of that £174.25m spending spree, which remains the club’s biggest overall outlay since the transfer window was introduced in its current format in 2002/03. But they are still expected to spend considerably this summer as they look to bounce back from last year’s disappointing campaign, which saw them fail to qualify for the Champions League.
Of course, the club-record £142m sale of Philippe Coutinho in January 2018 had helped finance that following summer’s business. With Liverpool unable to compete with the riches of Man City and the rest of their ‘Big Seven’ rivals, it has jovially been suggested how the Reds would benefit from their ‘next Coutinho’ to cash in on.
READ MORE: Liverpool midfielder goes viral for sensational reason as transfer targets outshined
READ MORE: Liverpool tried to re-sign forward who has just completed £50k transfer
Club bosses have sold sensibly in recent years, with fringe players Christian Benteke, Jordon Ibe, Mamadou Sakho, Dominic Solanke, Danny Ings, Rhian Brewster, and Neco Williams all fetching £15m-£30m each. Such incomings have helped bolster Liverpool’s coffers as a result.
But unfortunately, the Reds don’t possess any such players who they would both be willing to move on and are likely to fetch a significant fee. Sure, Caomhin Kelleher would likely fetch upwards of £15m if allowed to move, but sellable assets with such an asking-price are few and far between at Anfield.
For now, Academy graduate Leighton Clarkson is the only permanent exit after joining Aberdeen after a successful loan for an undisclosed fee. Such a transfer will hardly eat into the £35m Liverpool have spent on Mac Allister.
Of course, the Reds haven’t been aided by the number of players that continue to leave the club on free transfers at the end of their contracts. Roberto Firmino, Naby Keita, James Milner, and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain have all departed on Bosman transfers this summer, following in the footsteps of Divock Origi, Gini Wijnaldum, Adam Lallana, Nathaniel Clyne, Daniel Sturridge, Alberto Moreno, and Emre Can in recent years.
While Coutinho is Liverpool’s record sale, Sadio Mane is the only other player to be sold for more than £30m during Jurgen Klopp’s Anfield reign. The wantaway Senegalese would join Bayern Munich in a deal worth £35m, with the Reds selling the forward for a small profit, having bought him for £34m from Southampton six years earlier, as a result.
Liverpool received £27.5m upfront from the Bavarians for the forward, with a further £5m owed based on appearances. They could also pocket £2.5m in add-ons, based on individual and team achievements.
Considering Bayern’s initial offer was for an initial £21.5m, club bosses were satisfied with the overall package that was eventually agreed. But one year on, despite Mane’s struggles in Bavaria, could they be forgiven for thinking they could have demanded more.
Mane made 38 appearances for Bayern last season, scoring 12 goals. Yet only made 25 Bundesliga outings, and 27 starts in all competitions as, not helped by injury, he failed to find his best form. And while the Bavarians would win the Bundesliga title, it proved to be the only major piece of silverware they won last season.
As a result, it’s unclear how much of that remaining £7.5m the Reds have actually been able to pocket. And with Mane set to move on this summer after reportedly being deemed surplus to requirements by new manager Thomas Tuchel, that full fee is likely to never be banked.
But even if you overlook Mane’s struggles and how much Liverpool would have actually received for the forward, Bayern’s latest pursuit of Harry Kane, who the Senegalese will essentially be moved on to make room for, prompts further scrutiny on last summer’s deal.
The Athletic reports that the Bavarians have submitted a formal offer of £60m plus add-ons for the England captain, with reports elsewhere suggesting such a bid was rejected by Tottenham Hotspur. The Daily Mail report the striker would be open to the switch however, despite Spurs being adamant he is not for sale, with reports elsewhere suggesting they will demand €100m to sell up.
Set to turn 30 next month, Kane is out of contract until 2024. For context, Mane turned 30 a couple of months before his own switch to Bayern, and had a year left on his contract himself.
So how is the England international ‘worth’ over twice as much as the former Liverpool forward? Sure, he’s an out-and-out forward. His 280 Tottenham goals far exceeds Mane’s own total of 120 at Anfield.
Yet the Senegalese is a versatile forward who could play anywhere across the front line and has won honours for club and country. The 2022 Ballon d’Or runner-up after winning the Africa Cup of Nations with Senegal, he won every major prize with Liverpool including the Premier League and Champions League.
There was a suggestion in Germany last year that Bayern’s offer for Mane was linked to their own £25m sale of Thiago Alcantara to the Reds in 2020. But the sight of the German giants bidding over twice as much for Kane than they paid Liverpool for their own forward 12 months prompts raised eyebrows, for sure.
Had the Reds had an extra £30m+ to play with last summer, maybe they could have pushed ahead with initial plans to strengthen their midfield in 2022. Or maybe further recruitment would have prevented them missing out on Champions League qualification.
Admittedly, it’s simplistic to suggest that selling Mane ‘on the cheap’ led to Liverpool’s struggles last year. Such a notion is nothing more than ifs and buts.
Sure, neither club could have envisaged the forward's struggles in Bavaria. But that initial £27.5m fee still looks paltry looking back, even before Bayern's £60m bid for Kane was submitted and rejected..
In hindsight, it is still easy to argue the Reds could have demanded more for Mane. Considering how often Liverpool have been lauded for their outgoing business in recent years, Bayern’s own pursuit of Kane suggests on this one occasion, they can't pat themselves on the back and might actually have been outmanoeuvred.
