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Manager Jurgen Klopp spoke about the transfers of two young, talented players this summer, Jordon Ibe and Brad Smith. Both players went to Bournemouth in separate deals, winger Ibe for £15million and left-back Smith for £6million, and in both agreements, Liverpool included buy-back clauses.
Klopp believes this was "perfect" business, and he plans to monitor both players closely while they ply their trades with the Cherries.
"Things like this are usually really expensive but these aren’t," Klopp told the ECHO. "Yes, there’s a bit of a risk. It’s not that you can sell someone for £10m with a buy-back clause of £8m. That would be fantastic!
"The difference between loaning a player and selling a player isn’t so great. Of course you get a fee when you sell a player. But in both situations you think they are old enough and ready to play but in that moment they don’t have a fixed position in your team.
"At that age you have to play and that was the case with Brad Smith and Jordon Ibe. They had the possibility to do that (with Bournemouth) and they were deals that absolutely made sense for both sides. We will watch them, they will have pressure there, they will fight for the league or whatever, and we will see them growing up in pressure situations. That’s perfect.
"If a player is on loan it’s different. It’s like going on holiday. You can always go home. That’s difficult for these guys as they are always between clubs. Now Smith and Ibe are there and we have buy-back clauses. Hopefully they do really well and then in the end we and them will decide."
Jordon Ibe, in particular, was player that many had high hopes for. He had the opportunity over the last two seasons to cement his place in the Liverpool first team, but never quite took advantage of it. If he begins to flourish at Bournemouth, or if Brad Smith matures into the left-back messiah that Liverpool so desperately need, then Liverpool retaining the options to buy them back will be good business indeed.