Liverpool have agreed a £15m deal to sell 20-year-old winger Jordon Ibe to Bournemouth.
While supporters recognised yesterday that the fee is decent for a player who would struggle for minutes this season, many were worried that Ibe would come back to haunt us – should he fulfil his enormous potential with the Cherries.
But James Pearce of the Echo allayed those fears last night, confirming that the transfer includes both a buy-back option and a sell-on clause, too.
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It would be heartbreaking to watch Ibe flourish and earn international recognition down south – much like it must have been for Manchester United fans watching Paul Pogba for Juventus. They’re going to spend £100m on their mistake, but Liverpool have moved to make sure we can’t be stung in a similar manner.
This is very, very smart business from Liverpool, akin to the way Real Madrid and Barcelona deal with the sales of young players.
The Champions League holders currently have Casemiro and Dani Carvajal in their starting XI; both of whom were re-signed after buy-back clauses were included in their sales to Porto and Bayer Leverkusen respectively. The pair left the Bernabeu, gained experience and earned a return – not like a loan deal when the return is definite.
Essentially, the deal is win, win win – with three potential Reds victories:
Firstly, Ibe could continue to digress and fail to establish himself as a Premier League winger, meaning the £15m we’ve already acquired will seem like excellent business.
Secondly, Ibe could improve tenfold and we could re-sign for him a reasonable pre-arranged fee – given first option ahead of any potential rivals.
Thirdly, Ibe could develop at a sturdy rate, eventually leave for a higher fee due to the enormous inflation of the transfer market and Liverpool will get a nice cash injection in a few years’ time.
There’s no direction Ibe’s career could go in which wouldn’t benefit Liverpool at some stage down the line.
The Echo claim that buy-back clauses will become standard when we’re selling youngsters from now on, and the only thing we’re question is why it wasn’t done sooner. Well done Jurgen Klopp, who obviously had a large say in this.