Since the 2009/10 season, Liverpool have sanctioned 111 SEPARATE LOAN DEALS. That’s 111 finalised temporary deals out of the club, some of which were players leaving multiple times – for example, Danny Wilson left on loan on three occasions.
These 111 deals include 91 separate players.
Of these 91 players who’ve left Liverpool on loan over the past six campaigns (including this one that’s just started), JUST ONE IS A REGULAR, CURRENT FIRST-TEAM PLAYER. Jordon Ibe. The 19-year-old spent time with Birmingham and Derby before establishing himself in our squad.
FOUR established themselves as strong, high-level pros elsewhere – probably capable of still contributing to our first-team squad: Mikel San Jose, Emiliano Insua, Jonjo Shelvey and Pepe Reina. (These names are obviously debatable, but after seeing these lists, nobody would be able to argue too many more should be included.)
Below, you’ll see a breakdown of the loan deals out of the club for each of the past seven seasons. You’ll also see a quick summary on what became of these players we scouted, signed, trained, paid and whatever else goes in to buying or nurturing footballers.
We’ve also noted whether they ‘made it’ at Liverpool, or elsewhere at any point during their careers AFTER the point they left Liverpool on loan. By ‘made it’, we mean an established first-team footballer in a major European League – the minimum requirement of anyone deemed good enough to play for us.
2009/2010:
24 loan deals
14 players loaned
Number of players who established themselves for Liverpool: ZERO
Number of players who established themselves elsewhere after the loan: ONE – Mikel San Jose
Mikel San Jose has gone on to win a cap for Spain and play week in week out in La Liga. Jay Spearing was touted for big things, but he ultimately became a Championship player.
The rest don’t need mentioning.
2010/11:
18 loan deals
16 players loaned
Number of players who established themselves for Liverpool after the loan: ONE – Brad Jones (just…)
Number of players who established themselves elsewhere after the loan: ONE – Emiliano Insua
Brad Jones was a barely acceptable backup stopper, so it’s very kind to include him in this – but he stayed for four more seasons after his loan to Derby so we’re kindly slipping him a spot. Insua won a cap for Argentina during his time with Liverpool in fairness, and he’s since gone on to represent Atletico Madrid. He more recently signed for Stuttgart this summer.
Alberto Aquilani’s loan deal confirmed his delayed permanent exit – with the Italian finally leaving properly two seasons later despite costing us £18m.
2011/12:
13 loan deals
13 players loaned
Number of players who established themselves for Liverpool after the loan: ZERO
Number of players who established themselves elsewhere after the loan: ONE – Jonjo Shelvey
Since their loan deals out of Liverpool, you could hardly class Joe Cole or Aquilani as top players, despite what they did earlier on in their careers. Jonjo Shelvey is a good Premier League midfielder for Swansea with the potential to become an England international. Many would have him over Joe Allen or Lucas right now.
2012/13:
11 loan deals
11 players loaned
Number of players who established themselves for Liverpool after the loan: ZERO
Number of players who established themselves elsewhere after the loan: ZERO
We got £15m for Andy Carroll, but his injury problems (and lack of European pedigree ability) mean he’s destined to be an average top flight striker for the rest of his career.
2013/14:
16 loan deals
16 players loaned
Number of players who established themselves for Liverpool after the loan: ONE – Jordon Ibe
Number of players who established themselves elsewhere after the loan: ONE – Pepe Reina
Suso is not contributing enough at AC Milan yet to consider him strong, while Sebastian Coates’ short run of good form with Sunderland doesn’t really make him good enough either.
Pepe Reina was obviously brilliant for us during his peak, but still did well at Napoli on loan, where he’s back again now after a stint on Bayern Munich’s bench.
Fabio Borini returned after this positive stint at Sunderland, but we tried to sell him – before basically freezing him out during 2014/15 after he rejected a move to QPR.
Tiago Ilori began the first of his three loan deals out of Liverpool this summer, but we’re yet to see if he’ll fulfil his potential.
As mentioned, Jordon Ibe is an active first-team member now.
2014/15:
17 loan deals
17 players loaned
Number of players who established themselves for Liverpool after the loan: ONE – Jordon Ibe
Number of players who established themselves elsewhere after the loan: ZERO
There’s hope that Divock Origi, Sheyi Ojo or Jerome Sinclair will prove another Ibe, as there is for Teixeira and even Wisdom – but they’re not there yet.
Based on the evidence on previous seasons, we’re not holding our breath, sadly.
2015/16:
12 loan deals
12 players loaned (so far)
Number of players who established themselves for Liverpool: n/a
Number of players who established themselves elsewhere after the loan: n/a
We can’t truly analyse this crop as they’ve yet to prove themselves during their loan deals, or return from them, this term.
As an example of a total waste of our investment though, Kevin Stewart is about to turn 22 years old. He’s on loan at a League One side and is obviously never going to be a Liverpool centre-half.
Based on this data, it’s pretty clear that when Liverpool loan a player out, regardless of what he cost or how highly he was rated at the time – we’re essentially giving up on him.
The buy-out clause in Tiago Ilori’s loan to Aston Villa, which has infuriated so many, proves this. We’re essentially confirming that if he fails, he’ll prove himself not good enough for Liverpool anyway, and if he succeeds – he’ll leave for a predetermined fee. What happens if he turns out to be Alessandro Nesta?
‘£6-9m he’ll cost, just like we agreed last summer.’
Players who enjoyed some sort of success on loan, such as San Jose, Carroll, Suso, Borini, Shelvey (I can’t quite bring myself to research the loan performances of every player in this epic list…), just get sold anyway – sometimes, but rarely, after a halfhearted attempt at reintegrating them back into the squad.
Loaning a player for Liverpool is a way of saying: ‘We can’t find an appropriate buyer yet, but we want rid.’.
It’s very, very, very rarely a genuine attempt to develop a young player and bring them back a playing asset. Regularly, older teens are sent to League One or League Two. Why? Look at Raheem Sterling and Joe Gomez – if you’re actually talented enough to play for a Champions League hopeful (which our youngsters must be aiming to do) – the manager knows by this point, and throws them straight into the first-team.
The best that can happen from a loan deal out of Liverpool is that the player performs decently and ups his sell-on price.
Or Jordon Ibe happens. And he hasn’t even properly ‘made it’ yet anyway, he just had a decent run of games last season and an encouraging pre-season. This term, he’s been poor in anybody’s book.
But is Jordon Ibe really worth 110 other essential failures during the past six seasons…?
Is Jordon Ibe worth the amount of cash (and time) we’re pouring into scouting players, buying players, finding them loan clubs, scouting them while they’re on loan, sometimes bringing them back and attempting to find them a role as a ‘squad player’?
Of course he isn’t.
These ridiculous loan reintegration stats suggest something entirely more overwhelming about our transfer policy: Spending small sums on individuals who might become good is very damaging if the success rate is so small. The entire cost of these 111 players, whether that be transfer fees, loan fees or maintenance fees (and by that I mean the cost to scout them, coach them, etc.) is obviously going to be enormous.
Would it not be more sensible to spend this enormous money on less players who have a higher chance of contributing to our first-team? Has it been worth us going through all this hassle for Jordon Ibe? (And it’s not his fault of course, he just happens to be the best of a pretty horrific bunch.)
Obviously there is the argument, a la Chelsea, that players are loaned out for future transfer profit. Again – I urge you to check out the names in this list and reconsider.
Whatever the club or management claims when they send a player on loan, in terms of his ‘development’, the reality is different based on our past six seasons. That is to simply get them away from Melwood – having given up on them being good enough for the first-team. One current first-team player of 111 loan exit deals proves this.
An example is Jordan Henderson. In 2012, he very nearly left on loan to Fulham. If he’d have stayed there for the season, would he be our captain now? I suppose we’ll never know.
Hopefully, the likes of Ojo, Sinclair, Teixeira and most importantly £20m Lazar Markovic (via BBC Sport) can buck this trend. Because if they don’t, surely we need to really question why we’re bringing in so many players and then loaning them out in the first place.
Jordan Chamberlain – Editor of Empire of the Kop – @Jordan_AC90