Michael Edwards’ mastermind contract decision can help Liverpool in the summer transfer window

Liverpool’s former director of football Michael Edwards departed the club last summer, leaving a lasting legacy, but a former contract decision has re-emerged to illustrate just how valuable he was to the club.

Having overseen a period where it seemed that every transfer Liverpool made was successful, his business accumen and talent identification helped the club to identify lower-cost options that eventually blossomed into world-class players.

However, it wasn’t just player signings which he excelled at - it was also the sale of players where he shined.

Whilst some of his impressive deals include managing to sell on Dominic Solanke for £19m, Mamadou Sakho for £26m as well as the obvious mega-money sale of Philippe Coutinho for £142m, it was the Rhian Brewster deal that has re-emerged due to one of the clauses in the deal that has aged particularly well.

Edwards managed to sell the young forward for £23.5m, despite the fact that he hadn’t made a Premier League apperance at that time. He also managed to input a buyback clause that would last for three seasons as well as a 15% sell-on-fee - in what was a masterful deal for the Reds.

Focusing on the buy-back clause, that is due to end this summer and clearly Liverpool aren’t going to activate it as Brewster has failed to hit the heights that he threatened to as an exciting youth prospect. It’s just the one goal in 17 games this season and Edwards ability to be the voice of reason as well as being a visionary saw him complete deals like this with ease - and he earned the fans’ trust as a result.

Now with Liverpool entering what seems like a crucial summer transfer window to re-imagine Klopp’s side, it would have surely been a lot easier to acquire smart and shrewd deals with him at the helm. Fans expect at least two midfielders to arrive in the summer and go straight into the first-team and they wait with bated breath to see what Julian Ward, Edwards’ sucessor, can conjure up.