The sale of Bobby Clark is the first player from the group nicknamed “Klopp’s Kids” last season to leave Liverpool permanently.

The 19-year-old midfielder has joined forces with former Liverpool coaching duo Pepijn Lijnders and Vitor Matos at Austrian champions Red Bull Salzburg, raising questions about the Anfield club’s intentions with their young players in a new era under Klopp’s successor Arne Slot.

Every fan wants to see young players leave their club’s academy and become regulars in the first team, but at a top European team like Liverpool, it is very difficult to make that dream come true.

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Academies exist to develop players for the club’s first team, but at the same time they try to generate revenue that can then be reinvested to other teams by selling assets that may not quite meet requirements. This money is then used to fund first-team transfers and the running of the academy itself. Liverpool’s academy costs £10 million ($13.1 million) to run annually. The club tries to live within its means; the academy is no exception.

There is an understandable affection for the academy youngsters who were part of the team last season and played their part in Liverpool’s success in the Carabao Cup final in February. With a long list of injured senior players, Klopp has had to call on youth players to fill gaps. Jarell Quansah, Conor Bradley, Clark, James McConnell, Lewis Koumas and Jayden Danns have all taken the initiative.

Of that group, only Clark was sold. Quansah and Bradley are now first-team players. Koumas has joined Stoke City in the Championship on loan for the rest of the season after signing a long-term deal with Liverpool earlier this month. Danns would also have left the club temporarily without a back problem, and McConnell could be out with his own minor injury.

As shown, the idea that Liverpool would auction off Klopp’s children is anything but accurate.

Two other young players, Stefan Bajcetic and Ben Doak, who played in the club’s academy, missed the opportunity to play regularly last season due to injuries. Their immediate futures are still unclear but both are interested in going on loan. Playing time in the first team must be their top priority. The same goes for midfielder Tyler Morton, who could leave the club permanently before Friday night’s transfer deadline.

There have been other departures – Harvey Blair is moving to Championship side Portsmouth, while Billy Koumetio joined Scottish Premiership side Dundee earlier this summer – but Clark, Fabio Carvalho and Sepp van den Berg are Liverpool’s most significant sales of young players this transfer window.

It should be acknowledged that Carvalho was educated at Fulham and joined the first team rather than the academy after his move to Liverpool for around £5 million. Van den Berg had first team experience at Dutch club PEC Zwolle when he was signed as a 17-year-old for an initial £1.3 million and was not classed as an academy signing. Clark Was when he joined from Newcastle United for £1.5 million at the age of 16.

New sporting director Richard Hughes has negotiated three excellent contracts for the services of the three players, with a combined transfer fee of £52.5 million. It is impressive that spending around £8 million on three players who were expected to be on the fringes this season could potentially turn into almost £60 million if additional payments are made.

The club have also sought to create additional safeguards in case the players they sell are successful. They have included sell-on clauses of 17.5 percent in the contracts of Clark, Carvalho and Van den Berg, after seeing a revenue boost this summer through a similar clause when they sold Dominic Solanke to Bournemouth in 2019. When the striker was sold to Tottenham Hotspur this month, they received £7.6 million.

A matching rights agreement has also been concluded with Clark in the event that he leaves Salzburg – should he be successful in Austria, he could potentially return to Anfield.

Previously, the Liverpool Academy had difficulty generating significant revenue from player sales.

Raheem Sterling, who was signed from Queens Park Rangers in 2010 at the age of 15 for an initial fee of £450,000, was sold to Manchester City five years later for a fee of £49 million. However, this was more of an outlier than the norm. Other sales rarely exceeded a few million; many were released or left on a free transfer.

Liverpool’s owners, Fenway Sports Group (FSG), were keen to solve this problem in order to improve their business model. Since 2016, the situation has changed dramatically. The club has raised more than £150 million from academy sales – and that figure does not include the sales of Carvalho or Van den Berg.

The deals included Neco Williams (£17m), Rhian Brewster (£23.5m), Harry Wilson (£12m), Ki-Jana Hoever (£13.5m), Danny Ward (£12.5m), Jordon Ibe (£15m, who originally joined Liverpool’s U18 side from the first team of EFL club Wycombe Wanderers), Brad Smith (£6m) and more.

Klopp has always been keen to bring in young players. During his nearly nine-year tenure, he gave 42 academy players the chance to make their debuts, but only Trent Alexander-Arnold, Curtis Jones and Caoimhin Kelleher established themselves as first-team regulars for multiple seasons. Bradley, Quansah, Bajcetic and others will hope to do the same.

Of the rest, only Williams and Nathaniel Phillips have made more than 20 appearances for Liverpool’s first team. Harvey Elliott was signed to join the senior team in 2019 at the age of 16. When he returned from a loan to Blackburn Rovers of the Championship in 2020/21, he became a regular part of the first-team squad.

Liverpool are currently not deviating from that strategy and it would be unfair to say Slot is disparaging Klopp’s work. One of the reasons the club signed the 45-year-old Dutchman was his desire to work with young players and his ability to develop them by bringing in academy graduates.

Things will continue as usual at the academy.

Trey Nyoni is the latest example of a young player quickly breaking into the first team despite only being 17. The Academy’s scouting and recruitment departments continue to look to sign the brightest talent from across the UK, whilst also nurturing those who have been with the club since the earliest years.

Nevertheless, there is discontent among fans that more and more young talents are leaving the club this summer.

Much of this is due to the lack of transfer activity. If Real Sociedad’s 25-year-old Euro 2024-winning midfielder Martin Zubimendi had arrived as Liverpool wanted, would things be viewed differently? The club is flush with cash and is the only Premier League club not to have signed a player in this transfer window, raising questions about the overall strategy.

Given the high number of injuries in Liverpool’s recent seasons, fans are justified in fearing that the sale of young substitutes could reduce the squad’s depth.

Nevertheless, the players’ wishes must be respected.

Carvalho wanted to play regularly in the first team, which would have been difficult for him at Liverpool as Luis Diaz and Cody Gakpo are ahead of him in the hierarchy for the left wing position. Morton and Van den Berg are at an age where they need to play games. Clark has the opportunity to play regularly if managers rate him highly, and potentially in the Champions League as Salzburg lead 2-0 after the first leg of their final qualifier against Dynamo Kyiv.

Could they have been loaned out instead? The concern is that a temporary move that doesn’t work out can be detrimental to a player’s development – and value. Rhys Williams, on loan from League Two side Morecambe until January, is an obvious example after several difficult loan spells following his performances in 19 first-team appearances, including three Champions League appearances, for Liverpool in the 2020/21 season.

Such moves can be beneficial, and some young players have already joined the club on loan. This can add value and significantly boost their development, giving them a better chance of breaking through. But it also does little to solve the problem of depth.

It’s about finding the sweet spot.

Not everyone in the academy will make it into Liverpool’s first team. That’s impossible. If a cheap deal can be agreed that retains some level of control over the player’s future, it makes sense for the club to approve it.

It may not be popular to see young players leave the club, players with whom the fans have built a bond and who have performed well during their guest appearances for the senior team. But football is a business. That’s part of it.

(Top photo: James Gill – Danehouse/Getty Images)