Why Liverpool are willing to sell young talents after £10m deal agreed

The transfer story of the summer for Liverpool has pretty much revolved around the lack of them. The club’s pursuit of Real Sociedad midfielder Martin Zubimendi ended in defeat on Monday evening.

At a senior level, there have been no new incomings for the Reds under new boss Arne Slot, despite a revamped recruitment team that included new sporting director Richard Hughes, a man hired for the role by the club’s one-time sporting director and now head of football at Reds owners Fenway Sports Group, Michael Edwards.

The failure to land Spanish international Zubimendi did little to quell the angst among some Reds fans over the lack of activity in the market just days out from the new Premier League season starting.

But there has been one interesting theme at Anfield this summer, and that has been the departure, or potential departures, of a number of academy graduates and young players.

Fabio Carvalho arrived at Liverpool back in July 2022, the Reds paying Fulham around £5m for his services. But with Liverpool stacked in attacking positions, Carvalho found opportunities hard to come by and spent a chunk of last season on loan at RB Leipzig and Hull City, enjoying greater success with the latter.

The 21-year-old, having played just 21 times in all competitions for the Reds, this week completed a permanent move away from the club, joining Premier League counterparts Brentford in a deal worth £27.5m, with £22.5m of that guaranteed and the rest through add-ons. The club also has a 17.5% sell-on clause on the Portuguese.

Having been at Liverpool since 2022, arriving on five-year deal, Carvalho’s annual cost to the club as it appeared on the balance sheet through amortisation was £1m per year. With two years down, Carvalho’s remaining book value was £3m, with Liverpool making a £19.5m profit on a player who may well deliver greater financial benefit in the future if he shines at Brentford and bags another big-money move.

Liverpool weren’t actively looking to move Carvalho on, with Slot reportedly impressed with him in pre-season. But with the 21-year-old wanting a role of more prominence this season, and Liverpool unable to guarantee him that, both parties explored an exit. In terms of a deal for the Reds they will likely be pretty happy with how it panned out in the absence of him really taking off as a Liverpool player.

Dutch defender Sepp van den Berg signed for Liverpool in 2019. In that time he has played once in the FA Cup and three times in the Carabao Cup, with loan spells at Preston North End, Mainz 05, and Schalke 04 coming during his time with the Reds.

Signed for £1.3m from PEC Zwolle, van den Berg is believed to be attracting interest from other clubs this summer and is chasing a permanent move away, although the Reds want around £20m for the player. If they get that then they would have made almost £40m in profit from the sale of two players who played a combined 13 Premier League matches between them.

But for others that Liverpool have produced through the academy, they count as pure profit for the clubs on the balance sheet. Chelsea’s conveyor belt of academy talent has largely allowed them to get around the issue of profit and sustainability rules (PSR) at a time of major transfer spending.

But selling your young talents isn’t always a popular move, and there has been some concern over the potential exit of players including Ben Doak and Bobby Clark.

Liverpool’s Carabao Cup final success over Chelsea was done with a young side made up of largely academy graduates. It was a triumph that was rightly lauded, one that spoke to the standard of the youth setup at Anfield and the faith that former boss Jurgen Klopp had in his younger players.

But it was also a case of needs must at the time, and Liverpool know that the pathway to further game time and growth at Anfield is a challenging one to travel along, especially when there is a stellar cast of attacking options and a wealth of talent in midfield, as well as some exciting young things who are set to make a big impact in the coming years, such as Trey Nyoni, while Stefan Bajcetic will be looking to put his injury nightmare behind him in 2024/25.

Doak and Clark have both been linked with moves away over the last week, with both temporary and permanent exits suggested.

Doak has reportedly attracted interest from Brentford, Celtic, Leicester City and Southampton, but at just 18 and having already made five senior appearances before injury curtailed his 2023/24 campaign and the chance for him to grow, either at Liverpool or elsewhere, the Scottish winger faces an important 2024/25.

While all options are on the table in terms of next steps for Doak at Liverpool, it would likely have to take a very favourable deal to take him away permanently given his potential ceiling should he be able to deliver on his promise. A loan move at a high level would allow for him to get the experience more regularly, vital for the growth of young talent, something that just doesn’t exist at Anfield right now save for the odd game in the Carabao Cup or FA Cup. Successful performances away from the club, as has been seen countless times, most recently with Carvalho and van den Berg, is a significant factor in driving the value of the player higher. If a permanent exit for Doak right now would see the club leave money on the table in relation to his future value then the club likely won’t entertain it.

For Clark, the situation is a little different. Given the players ahead of him, and those coming through younger than him in a similar position, a £10m deal on the table from Austrian side Red Bull Salzburg, with a 17.5% sell-on clause inserted, is a strong sum on offer for a 19-year-old who has 12 senior appearances to his name, and whose opportunities may be just as limited for the coming season, potentially damaging his future value and limiting Liverpool’s sale options. Liverpool are understood to also have a first option on Clark in the event of wanting to bring him back should he thrive.

Getting value for money in the transfer market can be a challenge, and player trading is something that is part of a football club’s bread and butter from a financial perspective.

Liverpool have no concerns over PSR or any kind of breach of UEFA’s financial regulations. It could be that the club are bringing in some easy money through the door to help them with a potential hit to cash flow if they do have to go back to the well to bring in a player before the end of the transfer window and may have to pay up a significant amount for a release clause, as they would have had to have done to land Zubimendi.

But it could just be that the offer is above market value and is deal that, given his squad status and the trajectory they see Clark on, that is too good to turn down and has limited downside. Transfermarkt has Clark’s market value at €1m (£860,000).

Time will be the best judge of whether or not selling young assets like Clark and van den Berg, or potentially Doak, will be a good idea in the longer term, but the Reds do have a history of getting good sums above market value, the likes of Jordon Ibe and Rhian Brewster springing to mind.

Youth will continue to get a chance at Anfield under Slot, as it always has. That is because it is incredibly valuable to have a thriving youth set-up and far cheaper to put together a team of homegrown stars that acquire them from elsewhere. But not all of them can go, and that means tough decisions have to be made, some of them for cold financial reasons.