Liverpool have maintained an impressive net spend over the last few years and been able to make big signings mostly because of the ventures of one man – sporting director Michael Edwards. The genius negotiator not only helps land big assets, but has also been able to sell players when they showed signs of regression at shockingly high prices.
As a result, he’s earned LFC a lot of money through sales that could be used to buy better players in the process. Edwards has been excellent with his sales but we look at his absolute 5 best ones that prove how big a genius he truly is.
- Philippe Coutinho (£130.5m to Barcelona)
Coutinho actually dug his own grave when he forced an exit from Liverpool despite there being obvious signs that the Reds were making progress under Jurgen Klopp.
Edwards managed a January sale to a desperate Barcelona, who ended up paying £130.5m, more than 10 times the fee Liverpool had signed him for. The Brazilian’s tenure at Barca has been full of troubles, but he has never met the expectations and instead enjoyed success on loan at Bayern Munich last season.
- Jordan Ibe (£16m to Bournemouth)
Despite being signed as a promising youngster, Jordan Ibe just couldn’t fulfil his ultimate potential at Liverpool. Seeing him struggle, Edwards managed a masterclass by selling him to Bournemouth, who offered a club-record fee.
What followed was unfortunate. Ibe only scored 3 goals in 78 Premier League games for the Cherries and was sold to Derby County earlier this summer after a terrible stint.
- Christian Benteke (£28m to Crystal Palace)
Another striker deemed not-good-enough for Liverpool was Christian Benteke, who, like Andy Carroll, was underwhelming leading the line for us. Crystal Palace were happy to pay nearly £30m to sign him in 2016 and take him away. Benteke’s been a big flop at Palace, scoring only 23 goals in 116 appearances and is a permanent bench-warmer for them these days.
- Mamadou Sakho (£25.3m to Crystal Palace)
Sakho was another regressing, not good enough LFC star that Palace decided to overpay for in order to strengthen their side. The 30-year-old has not lived to expectations in London, suffering a lot of injuries and not being consistent with his performances. Selling him for that much is definitely another masterstroke from Edwards!
- Dominic Solanke (£19m to Bournemouth)
But Ibe wasn’t the only disappointing youngster that was moved onto Bournemouth! Edwards also sold them Solanke in the 2018/19 season, a deal which also hasn't worked for the Cherries. Solanke scored only 5 goals in 51 appearances for them and is now trying to promote them back from the Championship.
