Former Liverpool striker Dominic Solanke is set to join Tottenham Hotspur in a deal worth up to £60m
Dominic Solanke could become the sixth-most expensive sale in Liverpool’s history as Tottenham Hotspur close in on a move for the one-time England international. Spurs have reportedly agreed a deal in the region of £60m with AFC Bournemouth to sign the striker.
The 26-year-old joined the Cherries from the Reds in January 2019, departing for an initial £19m fee after just eight months at Anfield.
However, Liverpool have received £24m for Solanke to date, with the ECHO reporting back in November 2021 that all the add-ons that were included in the deal which took the striker to the Vitality Stadium have been activated, with most having been physically paid up to that point.
The Reds also negotiated a 20% sell-on clause into the deal that took the striker to Bournemouth, and look set to receive a significant windfall courtesy of his big-money move to Tottenham.
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While such a clause is limited to profit only, the Cherries are still set to sell the forward for £41m more than their initial outlay back in 2019.
Consequently, if the sell-on is applied to profit on that initial price and a £60m fee is indeed accurate, they could find themselves entitled to a further £8.2m. Even if it applies only to profit after the aforementioned add-ons, Liverpool would still receive £7.2m.
As a result, Solanke’s overall fee when leaving the Reds is set to rise over £30m and could even stand at £32.2m - £13.2m more than his original transfer fee.
The striker is currently Liverpool’s 10th most expensive sale in the club’s history, with the add-ons included £24m already seeing him overtake Danny Ings and Rhian Brewster in the Reds’ list of record sales.
But he could now also leapfrog Sadio Mane, Christian Benteke, Xabi Alonso and Mamadou Sakho.
The Belgian joined Crystal Palace for an initial £27m, rising to £32m with add-ons, in August 2016. Meanwhile, while the Senegalese departed in a deal worth up to £35m to Bayern Munich in June 2022, his subsequent departure after just one disappointing season ensured the majority of add-ons on the initial £27.5m were not required to be paid.
Alonso cost Real Madrid £30m in August 2009, while Sakho left in a £26m deal to Crystal Palace in August 2017.
Only Philippe Coutinho (£142m), Luis Suarez (£65m), Fernando Torres (£50m), Raheem Sterling (£49m) and Fabinho (£40m) will have been sold for bigger fees than Solanke in Liverpool’s history.
However, Joe Gomez did see a £45m switch to Newcastle United collapse in June, in a swap deal that would have seen Anthony Gordon move the other way in a separate £75m transfer.
When you consider Coutinho, Suarez, Torres, Sterling and Fabinho were all star players for Liverpool, the fact they can claim to have received potentially £32m for Solanke - a fringe striker who scored once for the club from 27 appearances - makes it even more a remarkable deal than when the Reds first signed off on his £19m exit five and a half years ago.
Solanke initially suffered a slow start with Bournemouth, but shone following their relegation to the Championship as he scored 30 goals in all competitions to help them win promotion back to the Premier League at the second time of asking.
Replicating such form in the Premier League last season, he scored 21 goals from 42 appearances with such form attracting the interest of Tottenham in the first place. Solanke will leave Bournemouth having scored 77 goals from 216 appearances for the club following his Liverpool exit in 2019.