Where are they now? The last 6 Liverpool players sold by Brendan Rodgers
Brendan Rodgers spent three eventful years as Liverpool manager – but what became of the players he sold just before he was sacked in October 2015?
After coming so close to the title in 2014, finishing sixth the following season was a major disappointment for Liverpool and Rodgers attempted to shake up his squad and take Liverpool back towards the league’s summit.
Without including players who were released such as Glen Johnson and Steven Gerrard, we’ve dug into the careers of the six players Rodgers sold during his final summer at Anfield.
Sebastian Coates
He came, he scored that wonder goal at QPR, he was sent to the mid-2010s Premier League graveyard otherwise known as Sunderland AFC.
Coates’ time at Anfield was shaped by persistent injury problems. Team-mates with Luis Suarez in the Uruguay squad, Coates came with a promising reputation but only made 24 appearances across two seasons.
He’s since carved out a respectable career for himself at Sporting Lisbon, before returning to his home country in 2024 and signing for Nacional.
Iago Aspas
Given he’s since proven how good he is, it’s a little unfair that Premier League viewers will only ever associate Aspas with the infamous corner-kick he took against Chelsea.
He passed the ball straight to Willian as Liverpool were desperately searching for an equaliser that would have put the title back in their hands back in 2014.
“The corner is the last memory they have of me but football always gives you another chance,” he said, years later.
“Let’s hope the new lasting memory of me in England is knocking Manchester United out of Europe, for the sake of Celta Vigo, and for the happiness, it would bring to Liverpool supporters too.”
The Spanish club didn’t manage to knock Manchester United out of the Europa League, but Aspas has become a legend back at his boyhood club.
He’s scored 147 La Liga goals in 322 appearances, averaging 16 goals a season since 2015-16.
Raheem Sterling
While he might have left Anfield on a sour note, you can’t deny the success that Sterling has gone on to have in his career. A four-time Premier League winner with over 100 league goals – that’s some achievement.
After being bombed out of Chelsea, the former England forward is currently spending the 2024-25 campaign largely sitting on Arsenal’s bench.
READ MORE: Ranking Liverpool’s 27 weirdest signings of the Premier League era
TRY A QUIZ: Can you name Liverpool’s top scorer from every Premier League season?
Javier Manquillo
Manquillo joined Liverpool on a two-year loan deal from Atletico Madrid but the move was terminated in 2015 after he made just 10 Premier League appearances.
He was subsequently shipped out to Marseille and Sunderland before signing on a permanent deal with Newcastle United in 2017.
Something of a forgotten man, he made a grand total of six appearances – and none at all last season – for Eddie Howe’s Magpies over the past two seasons. He quietly left in the summer and now plays for for La Liga club Celta Vigo.
QUIZ: Can you name every Spaniard to play for Liverpool in the Premier League?
Rickie Lambert
Lambert was released by Liverpool as a 15-year-old but completed a fairytale return to his boyhood club 17 years later after establishing himself at Southampton.
The striker failed to make a major impact and lasted only one year at Anfield, scoring three goals in 36 appearances in 2014-15.
“It was great,” Lambert told Bristol Live in May 2020. “I returned to my home city as a different person than when I left. I was a lot more professional of course. And it went okay at first, I scored a couple and was quite happy.
“But I could tell that the players were all shocked at losing Luis Suarez, and how much of their game revolved around him. I was never going to replace someone like that, was I? Going in after him was hard, very hard.”
After spells of the same length at West Brom and Cardiff City, he announced his retirement in 2017 and has followed Matt Le Tissier into some questionable rabbit holes since.
Fabio Borini
You may associate Borini’s time in the Premier League with his role in one of Sunderland’s many escapology acts in the mid-2010s.
His time at Liverpool sticks less prominently in the brain, apart from the time he was sent off for a challenge that ripped Santi Cazorla’s shirt open.
After moving to Sunderland on a permanent deal in 2015, Borini has enjoyed spells with AC Milan, Hellas Verona and Fatih Karagumruk, before returning to Italy where is currently helping Sampdoria try and escape Serie B.