Curtis Jones is leaving Liverpool for Inter Milan in a deal worth €35 million, with the two clubs reaching a verbal agreement and a medical now being scheduled.
It brings an end to 16 years at his boyhood club, and it means far more than a squad reshuffle.
Since the Premier League began in 1992, Liverpool have always had at least one Merseyside-born player in their first-team squad.
Steve McManaman, Robbie Fowler, Jamie Carragher and Steven Gerrard all wore the shirt across overlapping spells through the 1990s and 2000s, joined at various points by Jason McAteer, David Thompson and Martin Kelly.
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Jon Flanagan bridged the gap into the Trent Alexander-Arnold era, and Jones, born in Toxteth, has carried the torch alone since Alexander-Arnold’s exit to Real Madrid in 2025.
When Gerrard left in 2015, Jon Flanagan was still recovering from a serious knee injury, and the club went roughly six months without a Scouser appearing in a match before he returned in January 2016, the longest gap of the two.
The following season, Flanagan was loaned to Burnley that August, and it took until Alexander-Arnold’s debut in October 2016 for a Merseyside-born player to feature again. Both times, the gap closed within the same season.
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With Jones’ exit now confirmed, Liverpool have no obvious replacement waiting in the wings.
Academy striker Jayden Danns, also Liverpool-born, is the closest Scouse candidate to come into the squad, but persistent injury problems have kept him out of first-team contention, and the club are reportedly preparing to loan him out once he returns to fitness rather than fast-track him into Andoni Iraola’s plans.
Barring a surprise change of plan for Danns, this will be the first season in 34 years of Premier League football that Liverpool have gone into a campaign without a Scouser in their squad.
Photo: REUTERS/Phil Noble
