Liverpool $13m transfer begins to pay off as teammate left 'surprised' by his quality

It was a surprise to some when Bobby Clark was allowed to leave Liverpool in the summer. But for a fee of around $13m (£10m/€12m), it made sense for both parties.

Had Clark remained at Anfield, he would have got minutes. He would almost certainly have played in the Carabao Cup and the former Newcastle ace would have got time in the pitch with Harvey Elliott being out injured.

He wasn’t to know that, though, and he wouldn’t have got the game time that he has in Austria with Red Bull Salzburg. Clark has made 12 appearances to date under Pep Lijnders, with a quarter of those being Champions League starts.

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"I love him so much!" fellow Salzburg midfielder Lucas Gourna-Douath tells Liverpool.com. "I talked to him before he came to Salzburg. I told we needed him but it is not easy for him because he came from Liverpool, so I think the people put some pressure on him.

"And he got the number 10 also! We know what that means. But he is a really good player. I’m really surprised about his quality without the ball. He can run, he can press, he can tackle. I’m really happy to play with him by my side."

Clark took time to adjust to life in a new country but that is only natural. Only two players have ever cost Salzburg more than him (Gourna-Douath and Brenden Aaronson, now at Leeds United) and that brings with it some pressure.

So too does the Austrian Bundesliga table. Salzburg currently sits in fourth spot, 11 points behind the leader, Sturm Graz, though it does have to matches in hand. Three defeats and a goal difference of just one shows there is plenty of room for improvement with Lijnders' arrival assumed in most quarters to mean a league title victory being imminent.

Clark looked good in the 3-1 win over Feyenoord in the Champions League, though, for which Liverpool.com was in attendance. That was comfortably his best game for Salzburg to date by all accounts, and while the Eredivisie side had a player sent off, the Austrians were well on their way to a victory by that point in proceedings.

Clark and the Israeli attacking midfielder Oscar Gloukh looked the pick of the bunch and the likeliest to get a move elsewhere, which is, essentially, why most players move to Salzburg: to get on the ladder to somewhere higher up, often RB Leipzig.

While he might not admit it, that must have played a part in Clark's thinking. First, though, he needs to continue to establish himself where he is, further proving his worth to Salzburg — and scoring his first goal.