Liverpool fans were as pleased as punch when the news was announced.
Chelsea dominate most youth levels in England. Their impressive academy has outperformed their rivals when it comes to winning most competitions at junior levels. The problem has always been graduation into the first team. All too often exciting talents have had to look elsewhere for top-flight opportunities.
Dominic Solanke is an exciting young striker that has made all sorts of headlines at youth level. In fact he is seen as one of the most exciting forwards on the England production line. Just this month he won the FIFA U-20 World Cup with his country and received the Golden Ball award for best player in the tournament.
So it was great news for Liverpool supporters when their club announced they had nabbed the player from Chelsea following the expiration of his contract. The only formality was a tribunal fee to be agreed for the transfer, due to the player’s age.
But now it has emerged, via the London Evening Standard, that Chelsea want a record-breaking £10m in compensation for Solanke, which is far more than Liverpool were expecting to pay. The previous record tribunal fee was incidentally paid by Liverpool for Danny Ings from Burney – an initial £6.5m rising to a potential £8.3m.
If the tribunal does agree with Chelsea’s £10m estimation, it remains to be seen whether Liverpool will feel that is good value for money for a player they thought they were getting for a bargain amount.
