The Transfer Wheel Turns: Mané to Redmond to Canos

One of the reasons the transfer window can be so frustrating is that sometimes the players you want just aren't available. A club might be in dire need of a new striker, for instance, and have a list of preferred options, but the clubs these strikers are contracted to may be unwilling to sell, often due to the lack of available replacement strikers on a market that has yet to open up. Successfully completing a deal thus becomes much more likely when the wheels of the transfer window have started turning and players have begun moving clubs. Make your move too soon and you're likely to pay over the odds to get the wheel started yourself, act too late and you'll often end up with a player way down on your shortlist, as Liverpool did when they purchased a clearly unwanted Mario Balotelli towards the end of the transfer window two years ago, after failing to tie up deals for a number of other strikers.

On rare occasions, a club can make their own fortune by getting the wheel started, and that might just end up being the case for the Reds this summer. By signing Sadio Mané from Southampton on Tuesday, they created a need for a new wideman at the Hampshire club, who went on to sign Nathan Redmond from Norwich as a replacement. This has the knock-on effect of creating a gap at the position group for the Canaries, who in turn are now looking at Liverpool's own Sergi Canos as an option. The club had accepted a £2.5m bid from Bristol City earlier in the week, but interest from Norwich has the player stalling on the deal.

While the original offer included a sizeable sell-on clause as well as a buy-back option - two contractual devices the Reds have been frustratingly hesitant to use in the past - this interest from several parties gives the club leverage, which improves their position when negotiating a potential deal, possibly increasing the value of the transfer fee, the sell-on sum, or bettering the terms of the buy-back clause. It also allows the player to broker himself a better wage, which Canos will certainly appreciate, given that Liverpool's refusal to pay him £10k per week is one of the main reasons he wishes to move on.

Whatever the eventual outcome, this is another example of how the market changes on a daily basis, and how yesterday's deals have ramifications for those yet to come. Hopefully, this one ends with Liverpool either turning a solid profit on one of its young starlets, or retrieving said starlet for a reasonable sum once he has proven himself ready for the top level.