Liverpool have made plenty of high-profile sales over the years – but how many actually went well? Most players in recent years, admittedly, have gone on to struggle after leaving the Reds.
Sadio Mané's Bayern Munich spell was disastrous, as was Philippe Coutinho with Barcelona. Emre Can hardly improved his career after leaving, either.
But that doesn't mean there haven't been some awful decisions down the years. So here are Football FanCast's picks for 10 sales Liverpool shouldn't have made.
10 Conor Coady – £375k to Huddersfield Town (2014)
There are some on this list that looked bad at the time and some on this list that look bad in hindsight. This one is the latter.
Few eyebrows raised when Liverpool sold Conor Coady to Huddersfield Town. He'd just spent the previous campaign on loan at Sheffield United in League One and while he did well, his future at Anfield didn't seem particularly bright.
What looks bad is that after just one season with the Terriers, Wolves bought him for £2m. That alone makes it seem that Liverpool got a terrible price but Coady would excel in the Midlands, helping them to promotion as captain and consolidating their position in the Premier League.
In the end, the Reds sold a very valuable academy product for just £375k.
9 Pepe Reina – £2.5m to Bayern Munich (2014)
Pepe Reina was an outstanding goalkeeper for Liverpool at his best – really, their finest since Bruce Grobelaar in the 1980s. Brendan Rodgers didn't appear to particularly rate him when taking over in 2012, however, and sent the Spaniard out on loan in 2013.
Now, it was more complicated than that. Reina and Liverpool expected him to head to Barcelona that summer – but the move collapsed when Victor Valdes decided to stay. The Reds had already signed Simon Mignolet as a replacement, so off Reina went to Napoli for a year.
The Spaniard did well, while Mignolet struggled. That didn't appear to change things at all, with Liverpool selling Reina in 2014 to Bayern for £2.5m. The goalkeeper barely played but rejoined Napoli in 2015, playing regularly for three seasons. Mignolet continued to struggle and really, Liverpool failed to replace Reina properly until Alisson arrived in 2018.
8 Luis Suárez – £75m to Barcelona (2014)
2014 is looking like a pretty dreadful summer for Liverpool, right? Well, it was even worse than you think.
Now, in their defence, Liverpool pretty much had to sell Suárez. They'd only kept him the previous summer by assuring him he could leave for Barcelona or Real Madrid in 2014, should they bid. And Barcelona did. On top of that, the Uruguayan bit (as in actually biting) a player for the third time in three-and-a-half years that summer – he'd get a four-month ban.
The problem here is that Liverpool just let their star player go without any plan to replace him. You're likely thinking 'how do you replace Suárez?' and it's a good question – we're not sure. What you don't do is attempt to replace his 30+ goals and 11 assists with Mario Balotelli, Rickie Lambert, Lazar Markovic and Fabio Borini. Because that's what the Reds did.
It didn't work. Could Liverpool have even kept Suárez? We doubt it, and that's why he's so low on this list. But selling a player is absolutely pointless if you go so comically backwards.
7 Nicolas Anelka – we're cheating (2002)
Okay, so Liverpool didn't sell Nicolas Anelka because they never actually owned Nicolas Anelka. We're cheating with this one but it's too good to leave out.
Anelka was the young player to watch in the late 90s as Arsenal snapped him up in 1997 to be their future star. His reputation as a 'sulk' held him back, however, and Real Madrid had their go at getting the best out of Anelka. While he had his moments, the same attitude problems persisted.
Back to Paris Saint-Germain he went, and back came the attitude issues. They did, however, allow Liverpool to get Anelka on loan in 2002 and the Frenchman looked good. But the Reds decided not to sign the striker permanently as they felt El Hadji Diouf was a better bet. The Senegal star essentially cost the same money.
Anelka moved to Manchester City and scored 30 Premier League goals in the next two seasons, with 45 being his total tally there. Diouf scored three – all in his first campaign – before joining Bolton for next to nothing in 2004.
6 Raheem Sterling – £49m to Manchester City (2015)
It was clear that Raheem Sterling could leave Liverpool back in 2015 after a fairly ridiculous interview and public criticism of Brendan Rodgers. The Reds didn't actually need to sell him, however.
But they did and to Manchester City for £49m – a team they'd been in a title challenge with just one year prior.
What makes this one really burn, though, is that Liverpool replaced Rodgers with Jurgen Klopp just a few months later. They almost certainly could have kept Sterling at the club – and we can only imagine what kind of player he could have been for the Reds under the German.
5 Craig Bellamy – £7.5m to West Ham (2007)
You won't find a more obvious example of a team regretting a sale than Liverpool buying Craig Bellamy back in 2011. They originally sold him in 2007 to West Ham for £7.5m and, to be fair, it made a little bit of sense.
Fernando Torres arrived that summer, leaving less space for other forwards. But the Reds would also quickly find that they lacked options that weren't Torres – something they tried to fix a year later with Robbie Keane. That experiment only lasted six months, however.
Bellamy would instead leave West Ham for Manchester City in early 2009. He was productive there, too, even if he was back at Anfield two years later.
His second spell saw nine goals across all competitions as Liverpool won the League Cup and reached the FA Cup final. That was in one of the final seasons of Bellamy's career – showcasing what they missed for the prior four years after letting him go.
4 Dejan Lovren – £10.9m to Zenit St. Petersburg (2020)
The problem here isn't so much that Liverpool decided Dejan Lovren wasn't good enough, it's that they decided they didn't need a fourth centre-back. Now, in their defence – it made some sense.
Virgil van Dijk, Joel Matip and Joe Gomez would be their primary options, while Fabinho could cover if needed. Lovren had barely played the previous season and this would work in all but the worst injury crisis.
Liverpool then suffered the worst injury crisis. Van Dijk was ruled out for the season by the end of October. Gomez was out for the season a few weeks later. Matip followed by January. The Reds even tried Jordan Henderson at centre-back – he was ruled out in February.
The truly crazy thing is that Liverpool were top of the Premier League at Christmas. If they'd still had another centre-back option available, they would have had a much easier time of maintaining that.
3 Javier Mascherano – £25m to Barcelona (2010)
Javier Mascherano was one of the absolute best defensive midfielders on the planet in 2010. Liverpool, however, were coming off a wildly disappointing season (more on that in a bit). Rafa Benitez was out as manager and Roy Hodgson was in – things wouldn't turn around.
But Mascherano essentially forced his way out at the end of the transfer window with Liverpool putting up little fight. The sold him to Barcelona for £25m and without any sort of replacement or plan, really.
The Argentine would thrive in Catalonia while the Reds struggled over the next few years to get things together. There certianly wasn't any sort of Mascherano replacement.
They let one of the world's best go because he asked to – and Liverpool were left looking far too compiant.
2 Michael Owen – £8m and Antonio Nunez to Real Madrid (2004)
Michael Owen won the Ballon d'Or as a 21-year-old in 2001. Three years later Liverpool let him go to Real Madrid for £8m and a player who really provided little value.
And this isn't a case of inflation – £8m was an absolute pittance back then, too. Liverpool had paid £14m for Djibril Cissé that summer and he certainly hadn't won the Ballon d'Or.
The catch here is that Owen only had a single year left on his contract and likely would have left for nothing eventually. But if we're being honest, Liverpool just let him leave for nothing a year early – or practically nothing. They'd definitely have gotten £8m of value in one year of Owen, plus there was a chance he'd sign a new contract. It was a horrible sale.
The sole reason this isn't an overwhelming no.1 on this list is that Liverpool somehow won the Champions League that season despite lacking a reliable goalscorer. Having Steven Gerrard and Xabi Alonso in midfield helped, admittedly.
1 Xabi Alonso – £30m to Real Madrid (2009)
Real Madrid restarted their Galacticos project in 2009 and one of their key signings was Xabi Alonso for £30m. The Spaniard was regarded as one of the world's best passers in a great Liverpool team.
Alonso was incredibly important to Liverpool – he was their deep playmaker. The one who played the defence-splitting passes that got Steven Gerrard and Fernando Torres into the game. Without him, the Reds struggled to involve their two stars.
And that was completely evident in the season post-Alonso. Liverpool went from a title challenge to 7th in the span of one year, despite still having Gerrard, Torres and Javier Mascherano in their side. The only difference was Alonso leaving – and it made a dramatic one.
The Reds tried to replace him with Alberto Aquilani, who wasn't just half the player but also rarely available for selection. A disaster of a sale that set Liverpool backwards in a way few sales ever have.