Robbie Fowler is set to join Leeds United today after the Yorkshire club agreed a fee in the region of £11million sterling for the England front-man.
Fowler will discuss terms with the Elland Road outfit today and will complete the move providing he passes a medical.
The sensational development comes after days of speculation that Fowler was on his way out of the Anfield club he joined as a boy and for whom he has scored a record-breaking 171 goals in 330 matches.
Leeds had made their interest known last weekend, but refused to pay what was believed to be a £15 million sterling asking price. It was also believed that Liverpool had let it be known that they would consider offers for the player.
Fowler has been a target of Leeds for months, and it had become apparent that the 26-year-old would be sold by the Merseysiders rather than allow him to walk away from the club in 18 months' time on a Bosman transfer with Liverpool getting nothing. That is what happened when Fowler's mate Steve McManaman quit the club to join Real Madrid two seasons ago.
But the timing of the move will shock Liverpool fans, who have always idolised a player nicknamed "God" in the dressingroom for his wonderful scoring ability.
Liverpool will be selling one of the country's best finishers to the club many believe are their major rivals for the Premiership title, and the fear on the Kop is that Fowler's departure will one day come back to haunt them.
Only hours before the fee was agreed - Liverpool were not prepared to reveal the exact amount - caretaker boss Phil Thompson claimed that new contract talks were imminent and that he hoped the player would want to stay at the club.
It was a training ground bust-up between Thompson and Fowler earlier in the season that pushed Fowler towards the exit door. Fowler was forced by boss Gerard Houllier to apologise to Thompson, a stand-off followed that lasted several days and meant Fowler was left out of two matches before he complied.
Houllier, who will certainly have sanctioned the deal despite being at home recovering from major heart surgery, has always publicly backed Fowler and kept him as club vice-captain.
But it has always been an uneasy relationship between manager and player, with Fowler being made to accept that he was no longer in Houllier's first-choice team and that Michael Owen and Emile Heskey would always be the number one front partnership when they were both fit.
That has left Fowler frequently on the substitutes' bench, and with the World Cup finals coming up next summer, the Scouse star had been made aware by England boss Sven-Goran Eriksson that he needed regular first-team football to be sure of his place in the squad.
Fowler has always found it hard to accept that he was not the main man any longer at Anfield, and it has caused several bust-ups behind the scenes.
Although he started - and scored in - the Worthington Cup final last season, he was named on the bench for the FA Cup final and UEFA Cup final sides, and this reality has clearly hurt the player, who signed as a full professional with the club in 1992.
Serious injuries and disciplinary problems have blighted his recent seasons with the club the FA banning him for a infamous "coke" sniffing incident in a derby match with Everton, while he also fell foul of the authorities for a very public row with Chelsea's Graeme Le Saux. But for all his problems, Fowler has remained a great hero of the Kop, and his departure will bring considerable criticism.
For David O'Leary, Fowler's arrival represents a significant transfer coup and is due to push the 43-year-old Irishman's outlay on players to £97 million.
