Liverpool have become masters at closely following transfer market trends to determine price tags in recent years, as the Reds look to command top dollar for their outgoing players.
While such a strategy hasn’t always prompted takers at their given asking price, more times than not they have been left suitably satisfied by their business.
Only earlier this month they agreed a deal worth roughly £17m for Neco Williams with Nottingham Forest, using Tottenham Hotspur’s imminent signing of Djed Spence from Middlesbrough for £15m as a guide-line when naming such a figure. Two years earlier, Ollie Watkins' £28m move from Brentford to Aston Villa in the summer of 2020, following a prolific campaign in the Championship, enabled them to bank £23.5m for Rhian Brewster when selling the England youth international to Sheffield United off the back of a successful half-season loan stint with Swansea City.
READ MORE: Diogo Jota hit by injury blow as Liverpool wait on scan results
READ MORE: Liverpool sign new Standard Chartered shirt deal at 'much higher' value
Of course, such tactics aren’t always successful. Liverpool had wanted £15m for Nat Phillips last summer after seeing him step up in the face of the Reds’ defensive injury crisis in 2020/21 to help them qualify for the Champions League against the odds. Such a price was settled on after seeing Burnley sign Nathan Collins from Championship Stoke City in a £12m deal the same summer when the centre-back only had 39 Championship appearances to his name.
Yet no-one met Liverpool’s asking price for Phillips and he ended up signing a new, long-term contract at Anfield on transfer deadline day last August. Limited to just three appearances during the first half of last season, he was then sent on loan to AFC Bournemouth when the Reds’ demands again weren’t met.
Having helped the Cherries win promotion to the Premier League during his half-season stint at the Vitality Stadium, the 25-year-old had again been expected to leave Liverpool permanently this summer. However, it later emerged the club were also willing to sanction another temporary exit for the defender, who is currently away with the Reds on their pre-season tour of the Far East.
With Joe Gomez and Joel Matip both scheduled to be out of contract in 2024, club bosses considered it hasty to sell the 25-year-old, given he could be a potential long-term back-up option in the squad, should either of that duo wish to depart Anfield. And while Gomez has since signed a new long-term contract with the club, a decision on whether Phillips will be allowed to leave Liverpool either permanently or temporarily remains on hold until later this summer.
Admittedly the prospect of Phillips remaining a long-term member of Jurgen Klopp’s first team squad appears unlikely regardless, even if Matip did depart, considering the 25-year-old has gone on the record confirming his desire for regular starting football. After all, fourth-choice at best appears to be the only possible opening at Anfield.
But with Bournemouth said to be interested in re-signing the defender, especially if he is available on another loan, Liverpool could certainly profit by sanctioning another temporary exit if transfer market trends are anything to go by.
A year on from his £12m switch to Burnley and Collins has been on the move again after joining Wolverhampton Wanderers in a £20.5m deal. The 21-year-old made just 19 Premier League appearances for the Clarets and couldn’t prevent them from suffering relegation to the Championship, but that didn’t stop him from becoming the most expensive Irish player in history as the Lancashire outfit banked a £7.5m profit earlier this week.
Granted, Collins is a full Republic of Ireland international and four years younger than Phillips. But he could remain a useful model. The Liverpool centre-back has only made two less Premier League appearances for example, while featuring in the Champions League and twice winning promotion - to the English top-flight and to the Bundesliga.
Wolves’ latest signing could indeed prompt the Reds to stand by their current £15m valuation further, if not increase it, if a permanent exit is sanctioned this summer. However, given Collins’ fortunes in his solitary season at Turf Moor before sealing his £20.5m switch to Molineux, Liverpool have just been given a rough idea of what they could expect to demand in 12 months’ time, should Phillips secure a Premier League loan move, either back to Bournemouth or elsewhere, in the weeks ahead.
READ NEXT
-
FSG insiders proved right as Liverpool seal £200m deal with Standard Chartered
-
Jurgen Klopp denies Real Madrid claim as he explains Liverpool transfers
-
Erling Haaland makes 'insane' Liverpool claim and blunt Man City Pep Guardiola 'point'
-
Liverpool tipped to make 'shock' move for Chelsea star Jurgen Klopp can make 'smile again'
- Liverpool may have just quietly unleashed next Jurgen Klopp tactical evolution
