Liverpool are the talk of English football right now after a historic transfer window.
The Reds spent £446m on new signings, even smashing the British transfer record twice to bring the £116m Florian Wirtz and the £125m Alexander Isak to Anfield from Bayer Leverkusen and Newcastle respectively.
Many wonder how Liverpool finance these deals under Fenway Sports Group (FSG) as opposed to having a Saudi Arabian ownership, but the sales of Harvey Elliott and Ben Gannon-Doak show exactly why the Reds could be so flexible in the market.
Liverpool quietly made a stunning £55m profit on Harvey Elliott and Ben Gannon-Doak
Back in July 2019, Liverpool swooped in after Elliott’s contract expired at Fulham.
The Reds ended up bringing the 16-year-old to Anfield for a sum of £4m, which was the compensation fee entitled to the Cottagers after a tribunal, seeing as they developed the attacking midfielder.
Three years later, Liverpool pulled off a similar deal, spending £600,000 to take Ben Gannon-Doak from Celtic in March 2022 when he was also 16.
Little was made of those moves at the time, but during the summer transfer window just gone, Liverpool turned this combined £4.6m investment into a profit of just over £55m.
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Liverpool sold Elliott to Aston Villa on deadline day for a sum of £35m, while Gannon-Doak was offloaded to Bournemouth for a fee of £25m in the middle of August.
A £60m return on two youngsters who cost a combined fee of just £4.6m is incredible business from FSG – who are unquestionably running Liverpool in admirable fashion.
Liverpool have also inserted clauses in Harvey Elliott and Ben Gannon-Doak deals
Liverpool have not washed their hands of either of these talented youngsters, suggesting the Reds still have faith they could be of use at Anfield in future.
TBR Football understand Liverpool negotiated a buy-back clause in the deal for Gannon-Doak, and added the same option in the agreement with Aston Villa for Elliott.
The deal for Elliott, which surprised Gary Lineker, also includes a sell-on clause entitling Liverpool to a cut of the fee if Aston Villa sell the England U21 international in future.
Evidently, FSG have done pretty much everything right when it comes to deals involving Gannon-Doak and Elliott.