It pays to keep your enemies CLOSE

RARE FOR REDS TO DEAL WITH RIVALS

- By THEO SQUIRES

While Liverpool might have sold Trent Alexander-Arnold to Real Madrid this summer, it’s has actually become rather rare for the Reds to deal directly with any of their fellow European elite clubs.

The Reds banked £10m for releasing the Reds vice-captain from the final month of his contract so he could represent the La Liga giants in the FIFA Club World Cup, as opposed to him leaving on an already-agreed free transfer to the Bernabeu.

But since selling Philippe Coutinho to Barcelona in a clubrecord £142m deal in January 2018, such deals have become few and far between as Liverpool climbed their way up the food-chain to re-establish themselves back at the continent's top table.

Going on to win two Premier League titles, the Champions League, the FIFA Club World Cup, the FA Cup, two League Cups, the European Super Cup and the Community Shield, they have become the pinnacle for so many players.

The Reds tend to recruit from lower down the food-chain, with players reaching new heights and winning major honours during their peak years before then dropping back down the ladder when their Anfield careers come to an end.

Now genuine contenders for Premier League and Champions League glory year after year, it has become rare to see sideways steps to and from Anfield in the transfer market, with only a handful of such dealings over the past seven years.

Emre Can, Gini Wijnaldum and Divock Origi joined Juventus, Paris Saint-Germain and AC Milan respectively, but all three were free agents after their Reds contracts expired.

Meanwhile, Liverpool have signed Federico Chiesa and Arthur Melo from Juventus in cutprice deals.

But both had been bombed out by the Italian giants as the Reds turned to them for additional depth with minimal success.