Liverpool can fill four iconic shirt numbers as new transfer arrivals join Reds
Liverpool are about to get busy in the transfer market, but not before they say goodbye to some familiar faces first.
James Milner, Naby Keita, Roberto Firmino and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain are all set to depart the club this summer, along with goalkeeper Adrian and scarcely seen on-loan midfielder Arthur Melo.
And in the case of the former trio, their departures will leave three of Liverpool's - and indeed football's - most iconic shirt numbers available this summer, while the Reds also still haven't filled the No.10 shirt following Sadio Mane's departure last year.
So, what is the history of those shirts at Liverpool and who could wear them next?
Let's have a look.
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No.7
Kenny Dalglish is still revered on the Kop to this day (PA)The past
Surely the most iconic number in Liverpool history, the likes of Billy Liddell and Ian Callaghan wore the No.7 before it became the property of Kevin Keegan in 1971, and then Kenny Dalglish six years later.
Images of Dalglish wearing the shirt still adorn the Kop today, and while the number was in danger of being seen as something of a difficult cross to bear in more recent times - Vladimir Smicer switched from No.7 to No.11 due to the pressures of the shirt, and then won the Champions League - the two men who've worn it across the past decade and a bit, Luis Suarez and Milner, did pretty well.
The future?
Mason Mount has been strongly linked to Liverpool for quite some time now, and he'd surely be seen as someone who could carry on Milner's good work in the No.7 should he arrive and take it.
Intriguingly though, the Chelsea man has favoured the No.19 for both club and country pretty much ever since he burst onto the scene, and so should he request that shirt than its current occupier, Harvey Elliott, surely wouldn't mind the seven either.
Luis Diaz would be another option having worn the No.7 at Porto.
No.8
Steven Gerrard took the Liverpool No.8 shirt in 2004 and wore it for 11 years (The Daily Mirror)The past
Roger Hunt, Liverpool's second highest goalscorer of all-time, used to wear the No.8 shirt, while Tommy Smith, Emlyn Hughes, Jimmy Case, Terry McDermott and John Aldridge also donned it with varying levels of frequency during the pre-squad number age.
Stan Collymore and Emile Heskey then took the shirt into the new millennium, but it became truly iconic when Steven Gerrard took it over in 2004. Indeed, Liverpool enlisted Gerrard to present the shirt to Keita when he arrived in the summer of 2018, three years after it was last worn.
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The future?
Ryan Gravenberch wears the No.38 at Bayern Munich, and wore No.8 at Ajax (Jürgen Fromme/picture-alliance/dpa/AP Images)With midfield such an obvious area of improvement for Liverpool this summer, it seems as though Keita's shirt won't be vacant for long.
Bayern Munich's Ryan Gravenberch emerged as a firm Reds target in the wake of ending interest in Jude Bellingham, and the Dutchman wore the No.8 at Ajax while it also features on his kit in Germany.
Thomas Tuchel is said to want to hold on to Gravenberch this summer though and so a deal is starting to look a little complicated, with Mount another option to take the No.8.
No.9
Ian Rush is immortalised in a mural near Anfield (Andrew Teebay Liverpool Echo)The past
No-one has scored more goals for Liverpool than Ian Rush, who made the No.9 shirt his own across two spells at the club after it was previously worn to great effect by Ian St John and Steve Heighway.
After Rush it was passed on to Robbie Fowler who kept the goalscoring tradition of the shirt alive, but then after Fernando Torres the number became somewhat cursed as it was sported by Andy Carroll, Iago Aspas, Rickie Lambert and Christian Benteke, before Firmino switched from the No.11 he wore in his first two seasons to take it in 2017.
The future?
This one looks fairly simple to predict.
Darwin Nunez has had his up and down moments in his first season with the Reds, but perhaps a new number for next season could help him unlock the huge potential he clearly has?
The Uruguayan wore the No.9 at previous club Benfica, and as the closest thing Liverpool have to pure forward in the squad, something Klopp will hope to see more of next season, he seems a shoo-in for the shirt.
No.10
Sadio Mane left the club a legend last year (Liverpool FC via Getty Images)The past
Liverpool's No.10 shirt has remained untouched since Sadio Mane departed last summer, with the Senegalese doing so as a Reds legend and a player who, like Firmino, came to define much of what the modern Liverpool was about.
Mane had taken the shirt in the summer of 2018, six months after Philippe Coutinho had vacated it, with the Brazilian joining the likes of Luis Garcia, Michael Owen, Josh Toshack and most notably John Barnes in being fondly remembered No.10s.
The future?
Alexis Mac Allister wears the No.10 shirt for Brighton (Getty Images)The No.10 shirt has a certain glamour of course, and while Mane was a player who frequently made a difference to Liverpool where it mattered. The Reds will hope whoever takes the shirt on can do just that.
One likely candidate could be Alexis Mac Allister, Brighton's No.10, as he continues to be linked with a switch from the south coast.
Internal candidates include the likes of Elliott and maybe Curtis Jones, but Mac Allister could just have his eye on following in Mane's footsteps.
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