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Arne Slot looks set to leave Liverpool in a £35m deal transfer to Bayer Leverkusen (Image: Justin Setterfield/Getty Images)

If you think of ‘peak Liverpool’ under Jurgen Klopp, you think of the starting XI that beat Tottenham Hotspur to win the 2019 Champions League final.

But it is still the side we all think of when we reminisce about the Reds at their very best.

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Liverpool won everything under Klopp, but the ‘only’ honours that starting XI all won were the 2019 Champions League and 2019/20 Premier League title.

Alisson missed the European Super Cup win through injury, while Joel Matip and Fabinho sat out the FIFA Club World Cup before Gini Wijnaldum became their first departee in the summer of 2021 before the Reds had had the chance to complete the trophy set.

It cost Liverpool a combined transfer fee of £347.6m to put together.

Six years on and there are now just four survivors still at Anfield following Alexander-Arnold’s move to Real Madrid in Alisson, Robertson, Van Dijk and Salah.

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Yet Robertson could follow Alexander-Arnold out of the exit door amid interest from Atletico Madrid, with the Reds closing in on the £40m signing of Milos Kerkez from AFC Bournemouth.

Should the Scotland captain depart, Liverpool will likely look to roughly make back the £10m they spent when signing the left-back from Hull City in the summer of 2017.

But the seven remaining members of the Reds’ Champions League winning XI departed for a combined fee of roughly £89.5m.

If Robertson, Salah, Van Dijk, Alisson, Konate and Diaz do all see out their contracts and leave for nothing, that total will rise to over £575m.

But the Reds have been actually quite forward-thinking when it comes to the modern transfer market, with Bosman transfers becoming an increasingly common trend in recent years.

When faced with expiring contracts, Klopp would regularly defend Liverpool’s stance as he pointed out that the club was in a stronger position for retaining their existing players rather than cashing in to avoid them leaving for nothing, and then having to fork out on replacements who might not be as good or at least take time to settle.

But while Liverpool have retained the majority of their starting players in recent years, making sure they milk the absolute most out of their talents throughout the entirety of their peak years, the Reds are actually also taking advantage of another recent market trend to raise maximum funds.

Liverpool have instead raised an eye-catching amount from selling academy talent - who cost them nothing - and fringe players, and earned plenty of plaudits in the process from doing so too.

This summer alone, they have already banked £28m for Alexander-Arnold and Caoimhin Kelleher - who only had a year left on his contract.

And while they would have received a lot more for selling Alexander-Arnold in the middle of his contract, they instead retained his services for as long as possible, enjoying his peak years to date as helped Liverpool win every major honour including a second Premier League title, but receiving £10m for a player with just a month left on his expiring deal.

Meanwhile, the Reds are set to sell Jarell Quansah to Bayer Leverkusen in a £35m deal.

And this isn’t considering the significant fees they also received for selling wantaway stars or fringe senior players along the way.

In less than a decade, Liverpool have made over £300m from selling academy graduates and youngsters signed from other clubs - some of whom never even made a Premier League appearance for the club.

A massive part of the club’s model under FSG, that in itself virtually paid for that 2019 Champions League winning XI.

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Eyebrows might be raised when a Reds star sees out his contract before leaving for nothing or when the club cash in on a highly-rated youngster, but that 'controversial' transfer model is what makes Liverpool self-sustainable.

The Reds have been transfer visionaries.
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