Ben Davies is set to complete a shock switch from Preston North End to Liverpool - and it turns out that Liverpool may pay as little as £500,000 for his signature, per Sky Sports.

News broke yesterday during the Reds' away clash with West Ham United that they were targeting the 25-year-old Championship defender as they looked to solve their centre-back crisis.

Few would have believed that Jurgen Klopp would turn to a defender who has no experience of top flight football in any country, but a fee was quickly agreed with the Lilywhites for Davies as the Premier League champions seemingly gazumped Scottish giants Celtic.

Initial reports stated that Liverpool would pay the Lancashire side a £2 million fee for a player who is out of contract in June, with young Dutch defender Sepp van den Berg heading the other way on loan for the rest of the season.

It turns out though that the finances are not quite as first stated, and it looks like Liverpool have got even more of a bargain.

 

Quiz: Did each of these 18 ex-Preston North End players ever score a goal at Deepdale?

 

 

There will be an up-front fee of half a million pounds according to SkySports, with a further £1.1 million potentially brought in by North End in performance-related add-ons.

But crucially there is a 20% sell-on clause of any profit Liverpool make on Davies, which could end up making Preston quite a bit of money if the Barrow-born defender turns out to be of Premier League standard.

The Verdict

Whilst Preston fans will probably be disappointed that they aren't getting the £2 million guaranteed that was initially claimed, there is still a bit of upside to this deal.

The sell-on clause is the main factor. Liverpool have a knack of selling on players for decent money who don't quite make the grade. Rhian Brewster went for £18 million, Ryan Kent fetched £6.5 million and even Dominic Solanke left for £19 million, so there's the potential there for PNE to make some money down the line.

Nothing is guaranteed though of course with this deal, but it's a move that Preston fans will be following with great interest as one of their own makes a giant step up.