Liverpool have hit the jackpot with “special” £77m star in the making

The January transfer window officially slammed shut on Monday and Liverpool did not make a single signing to bolster their squad during the winter market.

Arne Slot‘s side are currently top of the Premier League and have already secured a place in the last 16 of the Champions League, which shows that their current team is already good enough to compete in the major competitions.

The Dutchman and the club, ultimately, decided to avoid any mid-season additions, which could have disrupted the group, and can now fully focus on the players that they do have in the second half of the season.

Liverpool beat high-flying Bournemouth 2-0 away from home in the Premier League at the weekend, thanks to two goals from Mohamed Salah, and their biggest success in January may well have been keeping players like the Egypt international.

Salah, Virgil van Dijk, and Trent Alexander-Arnold are all out of contract at the end of the season and the Reds resisted any potential temptations to cash in on the trio before possibly losing them for nothing.

Real Madrid reportedly made an offer of £20m to sign Alexander-Arnold from Liverpool, but it was not enough to tempt the Premier League leaders into selling him.

Liverpool’s most valuable players

Despite his contract expiring in the summer, the England international is currently valued at €75m (£62m) by Transfermarkt, which is significantly more than what the LaLiga giants put on the table for him last month.

That perfectly illustrates just how valuable the right-back is to the Reds because he is the third-most valuable player in the squad on Transfermarkt, even with his deal up at the end of the season.

Whereas, van Dijk and Salah – who turn 34 and 33 respectively this summer – both rank outside of the top-five most valuable players at the club, with values of £23m and £46m respectively.

Alexander-Arnold is still in the prime years of his career, at the age of 26, and that may be why his value has remained so high, in comparison to van Dijk and Salah’s, despite his ongoing contract situation.

As you can see in the table above, only Alexis Mac Allister and Luis Diaz are currently worth more than the academy graduate, who could find himself at Real Madrid on a free transfer in the summer if the Reds do not agree an extension with him.

If Slot and the club are unable to pin him down to a long-term deal at Anfield, the Dutch head coach could hit the jackpot by unearthing a new star in his successor – Conor Bradley.

Conor Bradley’s current market value

At the time of writing (05/02/2025), Transfermarkt currently values the Northern Ireland international at €20m (£17m). Only two outfield players in the squad – Wataro Endo and Tyler Morton – are worth less on the site.

This means that Bradley is one of the least valuable players in the Liverpool squad at this moment in time, but that does not account for his potential to improve and develop over the years to come.

At the age of 21, the talented youngster still has plenty of years left ahead of him to grow as a player to improve his performances on the pitch and, as a result, increase his market value for the Reds.

Since coming up through the academy, Bradley has racked up 46 first-team appearances

for the Premier League giants, after spending the 2022/23 campaign on loan with Bolton Wanderers, and has proven himself to be a capable performer.

As you can see in the table above, Jurgen Klopp brought him into the side last season and handed him plenty of opportunities to shine, with ten starts in the top-flight.

Bradley caught the eye with four direct goal contributions and almost four tackles and interceptions per game on average, as the youngster impressed at both ends of the pitch.

Why Conor Bradley is a £77m star in the making

Slot could, now, hit gold with the 21-year-old ace as the long-term replacement for Alexander-Arnold at Anfield because he is a potential £77m star in the making.

As per FBref, Manchester City full-back Josko Gvardiol is one of the most similar full-backs to Bradley over the last 365 days in the Men’s big 5 leagues and European competitions, based on their statistics.

The Cityzens reportedly paid a fee of £77m to sign the versatile defender, who can play at centre-back or left-back, from German side RB Leipzig, which speaks to how highly-rated the Croatia international is.

Gvardiol, who has scored five goals in 23 appearances in the Premier League this season, has started 22 times in the top-flight under Pep Guardiola this term, which shows that the Spanish boss has a lot of trust in him.

As you can see in the table above, both Bradley and the Croatian dynamo are attack-minded full-backs who want to push on to make an impact at the top end of the pitch.

The Northern Irishman, who was once described as being “really special” by international boss Michael O’Neill, has played 14 times in the Premier League and the Champions League this season and has done enough, statistically, in the first half of the current campaign and the second half of last term to be compared to Gvardiol.

This suggests that Slot has a dominant attacking force in the making at right-back and the manager can, therefore, unearth his own £77m star in the wake of Alexander-Arnold’s possible exit by making Bradley his first-choice at right-back.