What do Alvaro Arbeloa, Diego Lopez, Gerard Pique, Cesc Fabregas, Cristian Tello, Mark Hughes and Robbie Keane have in common?

That’s right, they were all re-signed by their club after initially leaving, either as a youth prospect or a senior player. There are hundreds more, obviously, but these are the ones that stick to mind when I think of players who have returned to clubs and been relatively successful.

In each case you could argue the club in question had admitted making a mistake in letting them go in the first place, shamelessly brining them ‘home’ for a second crack at glory. So should Liverpool do the same thing with Blackpool’s Tom Ince?

The 21-year-old midfielder is quickly showing signs of Premier League quality in the Championship with Blackpool and was heavily linked with a move back to Anfield during the summer, despite his dad and manager, Paul, insisting he wasn’t ready for the big time.

Since arriving at Blackpool in 2011, Ince has made over 80 league appearances and has scored almost thirty goals, consistently being a shining light in the Tangerine’s side. His performance in the 2012 play-off final loss to West Ham, in which he scored, wasn’t worthy of another season in the Championship.

But Liverpool appeared to be stalling over his £20million price-tag throughout the summer, instead investing £7million in Sevilla’s Luis Alberto and bringing in Chelsea’s Victor Moses on a loan deal. Clearly safer and cheaper options but, will how effective will they be in the long-term?

[cat_link cat=”liverpool” type=”list”]

Twenty million may sound like a high-price to pay for one of your former academy graduates, but when you consider what the likes of Fabregas, Pique and Arbeloa have achieved since returning to their former teams, you can see that such a re-investment may not be so bad.

Real Madrid and Barcelona are on a completely different level to Liverpool, agreed, but Ince has the ability to become a success at Anfield should he get the opportunity. He and Raheem Sterling both turn it on when playing for England’s U21’s and the prospect of having them doing the same at Liverpool should be enough for Brendan Rodgers to get the cheque book and pay what Blackpool are asking.

Club’s shouldn’t be afraid of admitting their transfer mistakes because, in today’s game, money is all that matters and, if a manager thinks a player is good enough to improve his team, he should do whatever it takes to secure his signature. Financial Fair Play rules will go some way in preventing that to get out of hand some what, but it would be a tragedy for Liverpool to allow a player like Ince to slip through their fingers just because they don’t want to admit they were wrong to let him go in the first place.

Liverpool’s start to the season has been impressive and Daniel Sturridge has been on top form with three goals in three. However, their attacking edge would be dramatically improve with a player like Ince in their side.

He’s young, skillful, quick and knows where the goal is. What’s there not to like about him? Rodgers may want to go back for him in January before Cardiff, who came very close to signing him in the summer, return for a second crack at bringing him to Wales.