Liverpool reportedly want a combined £80 million for three of their academy graduates this summer, with sales expected to boost transfer funds further.
By all accounts, Liverpool are expected to spend big in the summer transfer window to supplement a squad Arne Slot has led to the Premier League title.
That is likely to begin with reinforcements at left-back, centre-back and up front, with further interest at right-back, in midfield and out wide.
Some of those incomings could depend on sales of players already at the club, with question marks over the futures of many in Slot’s wider first-team squad.
Caoimhin Kelleher and Tyler Morton are among those set to be made available, with the goalkeeper into the final year of his contract and the midfielder having featured only six times this season after being denied a loan move.
Another attracting “mass interest” from clubs elsewhere in the Premier League is Ben Doak, whose impressive spell at Middlesborough has ended early due to injury.
In an update on Liverpool’s transfer plans on Friday, The Athletic‘s James Pearce claimed the club are seeking around £30 million for Kelleher, £20 million for Morton and over £30 million for Doak.
Liverpool would therefore hope to raise at least £80 million for the sales of three players who came through their academy.
Morton has been with the club since he was seven, while Kelleher arrived from Ringmahon Rangers as a 17-year-old in 2015 and Doak was brought in from Celtic in 2022 while still only 16.
Given their status as academy graduates those sales would represent pure profit on Liverpool’s balance sheets and are therefore hugely valuable with regards the Premier League‘s profit and sustainability rules (known as PSR).
But even at face value, if Liverpool were to sell Kelleher and Doak for £30 million each it would resemble a huge profit on the £30,000 and £600,000 fees they were signed for respectively.
That Kelleher was even signed for a five-figure fee is remarkable business considering the impact he has had on the club’s success in recent years.
It is credit to the scouting teams and in particular former head of goalkeeping John Achterberg for spotting the Irishman as a youngster and convincing him to make the move to Liverpool over their rivals.
Bournemouth are understood to hold an interest in Kelleher while Crystal Palace saw a bid for Doak rejected in the January transfer window.
The scale of interest in Morton remains to be seen, though RB Leipzig, Sevilla, Feyenoord, Eintracht Frankfurt, Bournemouth, Southampton and Ipswich were all linked last summer.
