Takumi Minamino applauded by pundit for making £15.5m Liverpool exit decision

The sale of Takumi Minamino to Monaco will be good business for Liverpool, according to Frank McAvennie.

Minamino was signed by Jurgen Klopp from Red Bull Salzburg in 2020 after the Reds activated his £7.25m release clause.

The 27-year-old has played 55 times for Liverpool, scoring 14 times, but he has struggled to get regular game time. He spent the second half of the 2020-21 campaign on loan at Southampton. But the left winger saw the season out at Anfield last term, despite making just one Premier League start.

Now the Japan international is heading for France with Monaco agreeing a deal worth £15.5m. Sky Sports report that the initial fee is £12.9m plus a further £2.6m in add ons.

McAvennie has applauded the player for looking for first-team football and Liverpool will not lose out financially. The former West Ham striker McAvennie believes the move will be good for all parties.

“No matter how good the manager is and no matter how good the player is, sometimes it just doesn’t work. For whatever reason it didn’t work for him,” he told FootballInsider.

“But he’s doubled his money, he’s brought everything back to the club. When he went on loan they [Liverpool] wouldn’t have been paying his wages so they’ve probably made about one or two million on him so it is a good bit of business.

“Minamino could have just taken the wages and not got game time, which is what a lot of players do. He’s wanting to play so fair play to him.

“He went on loan because he wants to play football. I think that’s the right way to do it. There’s too many players sitting on their backsides in the stands not wanting to do it, only staying because they’re getting big money.

“I couldn’t do that. I’d want to play. If I had to take a drop in wages I’d