In total, 38 ‘senior’ professionals have left Liverpool in the Jurgen Klopp era, but barely any of them have gone on to bigger and better things.
Below, you’ll see a list of the 38 payers exiting Liverpool on either a free transfer or for a fee since the German took over in October 2015, courtesy of LFC History:
Enrique, Kolo, Yesil, Teixeira, B Smith, L Alberto, Balotelli, Skrtel, Joe Allen, Ibe, Benteke, Canos, Rossiter, Sinclair, Wisdom, Manninger, Fulton, Ilori, Stewart, Leiva, Sakho, Brannagan, Coutinho, Flanagan, Emre Can, Markovic, Ward, Klavan, Ings, Solanke, Moreno, Sturridge, Mignolet, Bogdan, Camacho, Randall, Kent, Duncan
The only player who has 100% gone on to bigger and better things is Luis Alberto.
The playmaker is now a member of the Spain squad and has been doing consistently great things for Lazio in Serie A. He has eight assists already this term, which is actually only bettered by Kevin de Bruyne in Europe’s top five leagues.
At 27-years-old, he would go for a hefty transfer fee should he depart Lazio, much more than the £4.3m we sold him for back in 2016 [BBC Sport] anyway.
But elsewhere on the list, the only player we’d suggest has improved his reputation, or at least maintained it, is Danny Ings.
The striker has six goals for Southampton this season and notched eight last term. It’s a decent return for a bottom half of the table forward – but there’s no suggestion Liverpool made a mistake in letting him go.
On the contrary, the £20m we got [BBC Sport] seems like great business.
There’s also the possibility Ryan Kent and Bobby Duncan will establish themselves, but it hasn’t happened yet and we can look at the evidence of Jordon Ibe and Dominic Solanke at Bournemouth to suggest it’s by no means a given.
Then we can check out the players Michael Edwards negotiated good money for: Coutinho, Mamadou Sakho, Christian Benteke, Joe Allen, Solanke, Ibe… None have enhanced their value away from Anfield.
It shows that under Klopp, the grass is not greener away from Liverpool. Once you’re under his guidance, do everything you can to stay there.