Robert Worthington
Williams is undergoing his medical at Nottingham Forest ahead of a £17 million transfer and he’ll become the third first-team player to leave Liverpool this summer.
He follows Reds legend Sadio Mané and Japan international Takumi Minamino out of the exit door.
And Liverpool’s sales likely won’t end there, with centre-back Nat Phillips also set to leave the Anfield club before the transfer window slams shut.
The moves are indicative of a positive start to life as Sporting Director for the recently appointed Julian Ward who replaces Michael Edwards.
Ward had big shoes to fill in replacing the outgoing Edwards, who was responsible for some of the club’s most successful incoming transfers, as well as Liverpool’s record sale of Philippe Coutinho to Barcelona for £146 million in 2018.
Ward though will be quietly content with the work he has done far as Liverpool’s new Sporting Director.
The sales of Mané, Williams, and Minamino will go some way towards paying back the initial £65.5 million fee spent upon recent recruit Darwin Nuñez.
Aside from Nuñez, Liverpool’s incoming business has been completed on the cheap. Both Fabio Carvalho and Calvin Ramsay have joined Liverpool in deals worth less than £10 million.
Ward can thus be seen continuing the legacy Edwards leaves behind him at Liverpool.
The policy of selling efficiently and using that money to bring in new stars has been a successful one at Anfield during the Jürgen Klopp era.
It’s something fellow Premier League clubs have failed to emulate, which is a testament to the hard work going on behind the scenes with Liverpool’s sales team.
One thing which has perhaps changed is the club’s wage policy under Ward.
They succumbed to Mo Salah’s hefty wage demands last week handing him a record-breaking new contract. A notably uncharacteristic move from the Reds.
Ward will be hoping his transfer decisions pay off as he heads into his first full season as Liverpool Sporting Director.