The 2017 summer transfer window has proven to be a defining one for Liverpool Football Club as Jurgen Klopp sought to transform the Reds back into one of Europe’s fiercest sides. Sure, Roberto Firmino and James Milner had been signed in the summer of 2015 by predecessor Brendan Rodgers, with Sadio Mane, Gini Wijnaldum and Joel Matip snapped up 12 months later, but it was the start of the German’s second full season at Anfield where his would-be all-conquering side started to take its first major steps back to football’s elite.
Back in the Champions League for only the second time since 2009, Liverpool agreed a deal to sign Mohamed Salah from AS Roma for an initial £36.9m on June 23, before signing Andy Robertson from Hull City for an initial £8m on July 21. Meanwhile, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain joined from Arsenal in a £35m deal on August 31, while the groundwork on signing Virgil van Dijk was also completed only for the Reds to be forced to backtrack following allegations of alleged tapping up from Southampton. They would sign the Dutchman in a £75m deal the following January.
Elsewhere, they staved off the efforts of Barcelona to retain Philippe Coutinho’s services for a further six months. However, the Brazilian’s head had been turned by the Catalan giants once their interest had been made known in the summer of 2017, leading Liverpool to sell him to the La Liga outfit for a club-record £142m fee. That figure was then reinvested back into the squad by FSG, allowing them to finance big-money deals for the likes of Van Dijk, Alisson Becker and Fabinho.
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Yet while the aforementioned deals have certainly shaped the Reds’ fortunes in recent years, with Klopp leading them to a Champions League final in 2018 before going on to lift the European Cup, a maiden Premier League title, the European Super Cup, the FIFA Club World Cup, the League Cup and the FA Cup, there was one other transfer deal Liverpool concluded in the summer of 2017. And while it would have by no means anywhere near the same impact on the pitch as Salah, Robertson and Van Dijk, such a switch was still lauded as a success for very different reasons.
It was on this day in May 2017 when Liverpool agreed their first transfer of that transformative summer as they confirmed the signing of Dominic Solanke from Chelsea, with the striker going on to complete his move on July 1 following the expiration of his contract. Still only 19 at the time, the Londoners were due compensation for the forward’s signature after he turned down the offer of a new contract.
Following the threat of tribunal, a fee for Solanke’s signature was finally agreed in June 2018, over 12 months after his move to Anfield. Yet he would never play for the Reds again following his inaugural season.
Meanwhile, while Liverpool remained tight-lipped over the price they agreed to pay for the striker, the ECHO understood at the time that the club had valued the forward at around £3m with Chelsea demanding closer to £10m, with a compromise eventually being reached to avoid the need for a tribunal.
An Under-20s World Cup winner with England the same summer as his move to Merseyside, he had been in the youth ranks at Chelsea since 2004 but made just one first-team appearance for the club. As a result, he aimed a subtle dig at his lack of opportunities at Stamford Bridge once his Reds switch was agreed.
“Every time I see Liverpool, there’s such a family nature, there’re a lot of young players doing well at the club,” he said. “So I think it will be a good place for me to develop my career.
“As a young player, you always want to see the club you’re at pushing young players through.”
Having scored three times in pre-season, against Crystal Palace, Hertha Berlin and Athletic Bilbao, the striker didn’t have to wait long to make his competitive Liverpool debut, coming on as a substitute for Roberto Firmino against Hoffenheim in August 2016. A full debut would then follow in the League Cup away at Leicester City the following month, before he started in the Premier League for the first time in a 3-0 victory away at Stoke City in November 2017.
After starting at Anfield for the first time in the Merseyside derby in December 2017 as he continued to prove his worth as a squad player, Solanke was denied his first goal days later after he harshly saw an effort chalked off against West Bromwich Albion for handball.
“It went on to my chest, I tried to chest it in and it has clipped my arm,” he admitted after the game. “The referee disallowed it but it’s very unlucky. I thought he had given it. I was celebrating. I don’t know what changed his mind but he did. I thought I’d won it. It’s not nice when you are celebrating and it gets disallowed.
“The manager has made me feel welcome, he has showed a lot of faith in me and played me in some important games. He always gives me feedback and tells me if he thinks I should be doing something better, which you want from a manager. He does it game by game. If I’m playing and he sees things I can do better or I’m doing well he will always tell me. It is criticism and praise, it helps me a lot.
“I’m happy here. It’s a great club, a great team and we’ve been doing well. We have to keep on trying to win games. At Liverpool there are a lot of young players, it’s a young squad and the manager has a lot of faith in the young players so it’s a good place to be.”
Solanke would make further starts away at Burnley and Everton before belatedly scoring his first goal for the club on the final day of the Premier League season in a 4-0 victory over Brighton & Hove Albion. An unused substitute for the Champions League final defeat to Real Madrid in Kiev, despite coming on against Man City and AS Roma in the quarter and semi-finals, it meant Solanke finished his first season at Liverpool with 27 appearances to his name - six of them starts - while he was also awarded with a senior England debut as a substitute against Brazil in November 2017.
Impressing in his maiden season as a result, his amount of game-time certainly justified his decision to leave Chelsea and join the Reds. However, with Daniel Sturridge and Divock Origi both returning from loan spells away in the summer of 2018, he would fail to make another appearance for the club.
After making Klopp’s matchday squad just once in the first half of the 2018/19 season, against his former club Chelsea in the League Cup in September 2018, he had looked to set to join Crystal Palace on loan, only to be sold to AFC Bournemouth for an initial £19m on January 4, 2019. With the ECHO understanding that fee has since risen to £24m, the Reds made a hefty profit on the striker just 18 months after signing him in the first place.
Solanke would ultimately endure a slow start to life on the south coast, failing to score in his first-half season with Bournemouth with it taking him 31 games to open his account. Coming in the FA Cup against Luton Town a year to the day since joining the Cherries, it would then take him a further seven months to net his first Premier League goals for the club.
However, scoring just three times in the top-flight in the 2019/20 season, the striker was ultimately unable to save Bournemouth from relegation. Fortunately for the Cherries, thew 24-year-old has endured much better fortunes in the Championship scoring 15 goals in 2020/21 before recording a 30-goal season to help Scott Parker’s side clinch promotion to the Premier League this season.
Such form has earned him top-flight interest as a result, with Liverpool set to profit once again if the striker does move on. Club sources confirmed to the ECHO that sporting director Michael Edwards negotiated both a 20% profit sell-on clause and a buyback clause as part of the 2019 transfer, with it being understood before the January transfer window that Bournemouth would be looking to receive at least £35m for his services if he was to move on.
Solanke ultimately stayed put and will now be looking to add his solitary Premier League goal, scored for Liverpool against Brighton next season. And if he can end up replicating his Championship form in the top-flight, the Reds can expect to bank a multi-million windfall as a result of that 20% profit sell-on clause.
The England international might have made the least impact at Anfield from the club’s 2017/18 signings, but he has since proven himself to be more than an overlooked failed gamble or flop. With such a model proving to be rather successful for Liverpool when it comes to outgoing transfer deals in recent years, the one-goal striker has actually proven to be a rather shrewd piece of business, from a certain point of view.
