When you think of the Premier League club with the best scouting department, many often think of some of the brilliant players Manchester United scouted and signed under Sir Alex Ferguson and his crown jewel is without a hint of doubt Cristiano Ronaldo. Others may point out to the top quality youngsters Arsene Wenger groomed. Wenger has a big list with the likes of Cesc Fabregas, Samir Nasri, Kolo Toure and Robin Van Persie, but on the top of the list is Thierry Henry!
Arguments can be made for the case of Southampton who have managed to replace their outgoing stars year in year out. While Chelsea have dozens of promising youngsters out on loan every season.
Also read: 7 Liverpool youngsters who have a bright future under Jurgen Klopp
Liverpool also have a case to present. Xabi Alonso, Luis Suarez, Fernando Torres and Philippe Coutinho are recent examples of their eye for talent. Under the ownership of Fenway Sports Group (FSG), Liverpool have emphasised on signing talented players for a bargain price with the focus mainly on young players.
Many of the current Liverpool stars are examples of such successful signings. However, despite Liverpool's recent success in scouting, some players failed to click and were ultimately sold. Five such players sold by Liverpool are currently in the form of their lives!
#1 Mario Balotelli
When Luis Suarez left for Barcelona in 2014, the Reds needed a top striker to replace their talisman. They ended up signing Mario Balotelli towards the end of the transfer window and recently, Brendan Rodgers revealed that he took a big gamble in signing the player.
Balotelli had a history of poor conduct on and off the field at all his previous clubs despite scoring a lot of goals but he arrived at Anfield after scoring 30 goals in 54 games with his previous club AC Milan. The Italian managed to stay away from controversies during his time at Liverpool but struggled in front of goal. He played only 28 games for the club and scored just 4 goals overall. In fact, the former Manchester City star could only muster 1 goal in 16 Premier League games.
A disastrous loan move to AC Milan followed and he came back to Anfield with just 3 goals in 23 games. When Mario returned, the man at the helm had changed and it was clear as daylight that the player did not stand a chance under the new gaffer.
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Liverpool were open to selling Balotelli to any suitors last summer, but no club was willing to take the gamble of paying a transfer fee for him and also his wages. On transfer deadline day, the Reds decided to cut their losses and sold him for free to Nice in Ligue 1. However, the Reds are entitled to 30% of his next transfer fee thanks to a sell-on clause.
Balotelli has found a new home in France where he is adored. He has scored 17 goals in just 28 games for the club with 15 goals in 23 games in the league. If he keeps up his current form then a recall to the Italian national team is not too far away or he may get that rumoured move to China which could help Liverpool recoup a lot of money they invested on him.
#2 Jonjo Shelvey
It has been over three years since Jonjo Shelvey left Liverpool and during this period, he has shown some flashes of brilliance here and there but he has never been able to back up his incredible talent with consistent performances.
During his Premier League stint with Swansea and Newcastle United, he has scored some incredible long rangers and has changed some games around with his ability to give a pinpoint pass from 40 yards out. He also got called up to the England squad on a few occasions.
Under Rafa Benitez, Shelvey is finally showing signs of consistency and that has been one major reason behind Newcastle's brilliant season so far. The 25-year-old central midfielder has 5 goals and 8 assists for the Toons this season in 38 starts and 4 substitute appearances.
Shelvey's link up play with the league's second highest scorer, Dwight Gayle, is just marvellous. The former Crystal Palace striker scored 23 goals this season and Shelvey has had a big hand in that tally.
Shelvey was included in the Championship Team of the Year for 2016/17. However, it would be interesting to see if he can replicate this performance now that Newcastle are back in the Premier League.
#3 Iago Aspas
To be fair to Iago Aspas, he is not entirely to blame for his disastrous season with Liverpool. He was competing for places with Daniel Sturridge who is arguably the best English striker there is right now and a man who has declared war on the throne of Messi and Ronaldo. Enter Luis Suarez.
The late arrival of Suarez from international duty and a fitness problem for Sturridge helped Aspas get a lot of game time during the preseason and he scored 5 goals in 7 games. However, the timely return to fitness of Sturridge before the league season started forced the Spaniard out wide and once Suarez returned from suspension for biting Ivanovic, Aspas was out of the starting XI.
His only goal for Liverpool came in an FA Cup game against Oldham Athletic. It was a rare start for him and even more rarely in his preferred striker role because the main players were rested with the league games in mind.
Liverpool offloaded the Spaniard to Sevilla and from there he returned to Celta Vigo. This season, Aspas has become the main player at Celta Vigo after Nolito left for Manchester City. He has taken the responsibility well by scoring 25 goals and providing 6 assists so far this season. Only Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez and Cristiano Ronaldo have more goals in La Liga this season than Iago Aspas. This puts him in an elite bracket as he has scored more goals that the likes of Karim Benzema, Neymar Jr and Anotoine Griezmann. His brilliant form for Celta was rewarded by being named as La Liga's player of the month for October 2016.
Aspas was also rewarded with a callup to the Spanish National team this season. He made his debut as a substitute against England and scored a sublime goal to level the game.
#4 Peter Gulacsi
Since the departure of Pepe Reina in 2013, Liverpool have struggled with their goalkeepers because of Reina's replacement, Simon Mignolet, who is simply too error-prone for a club aiming to play in the Champions League. This season, Liverpool signed a new goalkeeper in Loris Karius, but the German is yet to show why Jurgen Klopp entrusts him.
Rewind to 2013, when Liverpool signed Mignolet. The Reds had another keeper in their ranks who never represented the senior team. He went on loan to three different clubs while he was at Liverpool and in the end, he left the club permanently to join Austrian giants Red Bull Salzburg.
The keeper was Peter Gulacsi and very few Liverpool fans will remember him. In 2015, he moved to Salzburg's sister club in Germany, RB Leipzig and was Leipzig's first choice keeper as they gained promotion to the Bundesliga. Gulacsi continues to be the team's first choice keeper in the German top flight. He has played 31 leauge games during Leipzig's amazing campaign and has kept seven clean sheets during the process. He has made 45 saves, 10 punches and 53 catches so far this season.
Leipzig finished second in the league in 2016/17 and are assured of a place in the UEFA Champions League group stage for 2017/18
#5. Suso
When Liverpool sold the talented and highly rated Suso in 2015, fans argued if it was the right decision to sell a player who had shown so much promise early on. However, soon a conclusion was reached that the club were right to sell the player as he struggled to nail down a starting role at Milan and made only 8 appearances for the club during his first full year with the club.
He spent the second half of the 2015-16 season on loan at Genoa where he found a new lease of life. He scored six times in 19 games for them which included a hat-trick that made him only the second Spanish player ever to score a hat-trick in Serie A.
Following his brilliant show for Genoa, Suso was able to resurrect his Milan career. He has scored 7 goals and assisted 9 in 33 Serie A games this season. He was been pivotal to Milan's good form during the first half of the season and has also been one of their best players of the season.
Suso was named Whoscored.com's Serie A player of the month for October 2016 with a rating of 8.96! He scored 4 goals and provided 3 assists in that very month. The highlight of his season was his incredible performance in the Milan derby where he scored two goals against Milan's arch-rivals and his first of that night was a mesmerising goal.
Now, Liverpool fans must be regretting the decision to offload a player like Suso.
