Jurgen Klopp was never afraid to call upon the youth during his time as Liverpool manager – and Arne Slot hasn’t been afraid to let several of them leave the club.
Slot has been pretty ruthless when it comes to youngsters, but Rio Ngumoha and Amara Nallo have been the latest kids off the production handed their bows by Klopp’s successor.
Here are the seven Liverpool academy graduates who were given their debuts under Klopp who have since been allowed to leave under Slot.
Trent Alexander-Arnold
The big one.
Alexander-Arnold made his debut for his boyhood club way back in October 2016. Klopp had been at the helm for a year.
The right-back went on to make 354 appearances for the Reds, winning the FA Cup, League Cup and Champions League alongside two Premier League titles, the second of which he won in his only season working Slot.
“I’m not saying don’t be disappointed but don’t forget what he has done for this club,” Klopp told fans at an event, reacting to the boos Alexander-Arnold received after announcing his intention to leave.
“I heard the booing, I switched the TV off. I couldn’t have been more disappointed. This isn’t us.”
The homegrown defender was set to depart on a free after his contract expired, but Real Madrid paid a €10million fee to release him in time for this summer’s Club World Cup.
Jarell Quansah
The defender was handed his Liverpool debut by Jurgen Klopp in August 2023, having returned from a successful loan at Bristol Rovers.
He went on to feature a further 32 times in Klopp’s last season at Anfield.
Opportunities weren’t as forthcoming under the German’s successor, even after the departure of long-serving club stalwart Joel Matip.
Slot tended to lean on his tried-and-tested central defensive pairing of Virgil van Dijk and Ibrahima Konate, only rotating in the youngster intermittently. He’s since been allowed to join Bayer Leverkusen.
Liverpool will be keeping tabs on Quansah’s development in the Bundesliga, though.
Fabrizio Romano reports that the transfer includes a release clause, available from 2027, starting from €60million plus add-ons. Quansah’s long-term future might be on Merseyside after all.
Caoimhin Kelleher
After four years on the fringes of Liverpool’s first team, Kelleher began to be rotated in more regularly during Klopp’s final two seasons at the helm.
The Republic of Ireland international earned those opportunities in the cup competitions and firmly established a reputation as the best back-up goalkeeper in the country.
Not much changed in Slot’s first year and an injury lay-off to Alisson afforded him a run in the team, in which he performed superbly to keep the Reds’ title tilt on track.
Too good to be warming the bench, Kelleher has since been moved on to Brentford. Slot couldn’t stand in his way, while the arrival of Giorgi Mamardashvili gave Liverpool a decision to make.
Nathaniel Phillips
The Bolton-born centre-back joined Liverpool’s youth set-up back in 2016, and an unprecedented injury crisis in the 2020-21 campaign catapulted him into the first-team picture.
It never looked as though Phillips would ever nail down his spot in a regular starting XI, but he wrote his name into Liverpool folklore – alongside fellow unlikely hero Rhys Williams (still on the books, for now) – by playing a key role in the club achieving a top-four finish.
By the time Slot arrived, Phillips had firmly moved back to the periphery.
He spent the 2024-25 campaign away at Derby County, his sixth loan stint away, and has since secured a permanent move to West Brom.
He’ll always have that Cruyff turn at the San Siro.
Sepp van den Berg
There’s a fair argument that Van den Berg isn’t really a Liverpool academy graduate, given Liverpool spent £4.4million to sign him from PEC Zwolle after 22 senior Eredivisie appearances.
But the defender continued his development in the Reds’ youth ranks at first, appearing in the Under-21s and Under-19s UEFA Youth League during his first year on Merseyside.
Van den Berg also made a handful of appearances for Klopp’s first team, but it was only during a series of loans away – Preston, Schalke, Mainz – in which he really kicked on.
He was sold to Brentford in Slot’s first summer at the helm, banking the club a healthy profit after departing for a considerable £25million fee.
Bobby Clark
Son of former Newcastle midfielder Lee, young Bobby Clarke was memorably one of Klopp’s Kids that beat Chelsea’s “blue billion pound bottle jobs” in the 2024 League Cup final.
He was introduced midway through the second half at Wembley as Liverpool went on to win it deep in extra time.
That was one of 14 appearances he made for the first team, but he wasn’t part of Slot’s plans and instead linked up with Klopp’s former right-hand man Pep Lijnders at Red Bull Salzburg.
The 20-year-old forward has been tipped to make a return to English football this summer following Lijnders’s sacking in Austria.
Southampton are reportedly set to table a £10million offer; watch this space.
Harvey Blair
Die-hard Kopites who keep close tabs on the youth teams will remember Blair from the promise he showed at Under-18 level.
But his first-team experience under Klopp amounted to one 55-minute display in a relatively routine League Cup victory over Preston North End back in 2021.
Blair was sold to Championship club Portsmouth during Slot’s first transfer window and has done nothing to make Liverpool regret their decision.
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