You'll have plenty to celebrate when you subscribe to the Liverpool FC newsletter Sign me up Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice Invalid Email

This week, there will be no influx of fans on Merseyside, no football under the floodlights, no melodic, operatic anthem swirling around Anfield.

Simply put, there will be no Champions League semi-final for Liverpool FC. Instead, the club - and its fans - will be afforded a rueful glance at Turin and Barcelona this week.

The semi-finals of the Champions League have begun. It was a competition the Reds began in September with hopes of reasonable progress and dreams of something more, but find themselves on the outside looking in, watching the best of Spain, Germany and Italy contest for the title.

The big tie is undoubtedly between Barcelona and Bayern Munich. Pep Guardiola versus his old side, La Liga versus the Bundesliga, and arguably the two best sides on the continent battling it out.

But for Liverpool, it’s even more. It’s a reminder of what used to be, and disappointment at what no longer is. It’s Luis Suarez, Javier Mascherano, Xabi Alonso.

Suarez remains vivid in the mind, the clumps of turf where his victims laid strewn still visible. Alonso and Mascherano, meanwhile, formed part of the best midfield in the world – or so the Kop decreed – alongside Steven Gerrard and Momo Sissoko.

A lot has happened since Alonso and Mascherano left the club. Both have won the Champions League, both have started in the World Cup final. Since their departures in 2009 and 2010, Liverpool have won one trophy, reached a further cup final, and launched a helter-skelter title challenge that just fell short.

Not a bad return, but a return that could have been better if Alonso and Mascherano – let alone Suarez – still played for the club.

An unlikely scenario, granted, but one that is still worth reckoning with. There is pride, but also disappointment, at seeing players who did so well on Merseyside do even better elsewhere.

And as Alonso passes, Mascherano tackles and Suarez scores, the overriding question: why did Liverpool sell them?

For some, it will be indicative of the club’s current place in football’s food chain, that level below the European elite of Barca, Bayern and Real Madrid.

This is the third time in six seasons all three have been in the semi-finals. All three have reached the semis five of the last six seasons. Of the 24 semi-final slots available over the past six years, these three have filled 15 of them. It’s verging on becoming an oligopoly.

No wonder Alonso, Mascherano and Suarez sought to join Real and Barca, before the Basque midfielder ticked the Bundesliga giants off his list too.

What’s interesting is how the deals for Alonso and Mascherano highlight Liverpool’s transfer policy – buy lower, sell higher – was in place months before Fenway Sports Group joined and the word ‘moneyball’ uttered in the corridors of Melwood.

There were mitigating circumstances, of course. The roles of Tom Hicks and George Gillett cannot be underestimated when selling Alonso and Mascherano. For Suarez, the release clause of £75m was met.

IN PICS: The day Xabi Alonso and Luis Suarez returned to Anfield

How Liverpool are no different to Manchester United

But Liverpool simply did what other clubs have done for years – sell their best and brightest for a big fee.

Real Madrid took Cristiano Ronaldo from Manchester United and Gareth Bale from Tottenham; James Rodriguez (Porto) and Isco (Malaga) were sourced from other Champions League clubs, while Toni Kroos swapped Munich for Madrid.

Barcelona have done likewise with Sevilla’s Ivan Rakitic and Valencia’s Jordi Alba, while Bayern have taken some of Dortmund’s best, as well as Medhi Benatia from Roma.

The problem for Liverpool, however, is what happens next. The two midfielders they sold within 12 months of each other line up at Camp Nou in a Champions League semi-final on Wednesday; their replacements, Alberto Aquilani and Christian Poulsen, currently sit on the benches of Fiorentina and Copenhagen.

Similarly, last summer, the club’s failure to replace Suarez’s 31 goals adequately looks likely to cost them Champions League football next season, their place in the food chain solidified.

Of course, the sales of Alonso and Mascherano happened during the ownership of Hicks and Gillett – cause to contextualise, if nothing else.

Having sold Alonso for £30m, it was impossible for a replacement of similar value – and, therefore, quality – to come in. Aquilani’s deal with Roma was laden with clauses, and the Italian never looked likely to become the £20m man the Reds wanted. Poulsen replacing Mascherano was simply a prime example of asset stripping, with Roy Hodgson’s questionable eye for talent sprinkled in there, too.

Last summer, there was no excuse. Suarez’s departure was followed by an effort to improve the whole squad, but Mario Balotelli and Rickie Lambert have failed to replicate the Uruguayan’s success.

A history of not replacing players

It is replacing the players sold, and not the actual act of selling them, which has dogged Liverpool for years. Of the top six transfer fees received by the club, only the £50m given by Chelsea for Fernando Torres was spent wisely – and that was only a job half-done, with £35m of it going towards Andy Carroll, while Suarez was meant as a partner to the Spaniard, rather than his replacement.

Robbie Keane was sold back to Spurs for £16m and was not replaced for the second half of the 2008-09 season – a decision underrated when figuring out Liverpool finishing second, not first, at the end of that campaign.

Carroll was also moved on to West Ham, first on loan and then permanently, for £15m. It took until January 2013 to replace him originally with Daniel Sturridge, a good move from the Reds, but it was Iago Aspas who ultimately took his space in the squad for the 2013-14 season.

A theme develops down the list of Liverpool’s most expensive sales. Robbie Fowler was replaced by Nicolas Anelka temporarily, but it was ultimately El-Hadji Diouf who was tasked with filling his boots. Keane was, arguably, a downgrade on Peter Crouch, while only success in Europe masked Michael Owen’s absence, with Fernando Morientes struggling to carry the burden.

It is a far cry from the past, certainly, when Liverpool’s transfers often dovetailed. Out went Kevin Keegan, in came Kenny Dalglish. Ian Rush was replaced by John Aldridge and then, when the time was right, Rush returned the favour to Aldridge. Even Alonso and Mascherano, as recently as the mid-2000s, were upgrades on Danny Murphy and Dietmar Hamann. An endless production line, whirring through Anfield.

That has changed through bad timing and bad judgement.

As Liverpool look in at the semi-finals this week, it will be done so with noses pressed against the glass, a real feeling of watching a closed shop, one hard to open when top players are sold.

But that isn’t what solely determines the future of a team. It’s what follows which is just as important. That’s why Alonso duelling with Mascherano and Suarez on Wednesday should be about nostalgia and pride. The bitterness and resentment should come at the failure to replace them, whatever reason that was.