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Rarely - if ever - has a transfer window been so subdued for the Champions of Europe.

Real Madrid, a team who won the Champions League for three straight seasons, spent an average close to £50million improving their squad each time they stored away another set of winners medals between 2016 and 2018.

Barcelona, who most recently lifted Europe's biggest trophy in 2015, responded by dipping into the market for Arda Turan and Aleix Vidal, forking out over £45m in the process.

The last English team to win the Champions League, Chelsea, spent big later that summer in 2012, bringing Eden Hazard, Oscar, Cesar Azpilicueta, Demba Ba, Marko Marin and Victor Moses to Stamford Bridge, for a figure just shy of £100m.

Jurgen Klopp's Liverpool, however, have very much bucked the trend this window.

(Image: Photo by Eurasia Sport Images/Getty Images)

Rather than choose to plough further funds into a finely-tuned squad that amassed 97 Premier League points and a sixth European Cup, Klopp has kept tight hold of the purse strings.

"We have to pay bills," was the frank admission last week. "Sorry. Everybody has to pay bills, we have to pay bills.

"We invested money in this team. Now it looks like we are not. But we are not in this fantasia land where you just get whatever you want."

This year's movement - or rather lack of it - is in stark contrast to the windows across 2018 where Liverpool spent an astronomical amount close to £250m that included game-changing additions like Virgil van Dijk, Alisson Becker and Fabinho.

Spending big, as last summer proves, works, but it's testament to the homework done behind the scenes that the Reds have earned full value for their investments, with every signing improving and upgrading.

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The studious and painstaking discussions in the corridors of Melwood have significantly reduced the amount of transfer market missteps over the last three years.

In 2019, the European Cup holders have had their gaze fixed firmly on the future, with 16-year-old Harvey Elliott settling in alongside 17-year-old Sepp van den Berg as the only signings so far inside the final days of the window.

West Ham goalkeeper Adrian will arrive as a deputy to Alisson following the sale of Simon Mignolet to Brugge, but a low-key entrance of a back-up shot-stopper is not what many had envisioned when the dust settled on the Madrid party.

Despite the public protestations, it would require a leap of faith to suggest Klopp would not have funds made available to him from the club's owners Fenway Sports Group, if he made it clear his squad needed bolstering.

(Image: Andrew Powell/Liverpool FC via Getty Images)

The American ownership group are hugely indebted to the work of their team's manager and are seeing rapid growth off the pitch with a number of lucrative deals boosting the club's accounts.

Klopp is happy to merely tweak and tone a squad that many were calling the best in 30 years at Anfield just 12 months ago. Events in Madrid have surely proven that to be a correct assertion.

Teenage Dutchman Van den Berg arrives from a nation where a 19-year-old centre-back captained its biggest club in Matthijs de Ligt at Ajax, at a time when Virgil van Dijk is widely regarded as the planet's preeminent defender.

A total of 15 first-team appearances for PEC Zwolle in the Eredivisie last term convinced chief scout Barry Hunter and head of recruitment Dave Fallows that Van den Berg was a must-have.

(Image: Nick Taylor/Liverpool FC/Liverpool FC via Getty Images)

Liverpool fended off strong competition from Ajax, PSV and most pertinently Bayern Munich, who were so desperate to land the defender they called him during his medical in a forlorn attempt to get him off the treatment table and to Germany.

Those efforts proved to be in vain and the young defender moves to the north west with an ability to speak fluent English and four compatriots already in the Liverpool set-up including goalkeeper coach John Achterberg.

The player's father will also be staying with him on Merseyside for a number of months as he adjusts to his new surroundings.

Insiders at the club view Van den Berg at a similar level to when Joe Gomez was signed from Charlton Athletic in the summer of 2015. The then-teenager went straight into the first-team squad at Anfield with a clear path of development laid out for him.

For Van den Berg, the level of competition is higher than it was for Gomez four years ago, but chances will come over the next nine months of competitive action.

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The Reds' second signing of the summer Elliott made history last season by becoming the youngest ever player to feature in the Premier League.

Elliott's maiden bow in English football's highest division came after 88 minutes of a 1-0 defeat for Fulham at Wolves back in May. It was a fleeting cameo for a player aged just 16 years and 30 days but more than hinted at how highly-rated he is.

It was followed up by another run-out as the Cottagers were beaten at Newcastle on the final day of the season to bring his season's appearance total up to three. Impressive stuff for a footballer who is barely able to purchase a ticket for the National Lottery.

Elliot made his debut at Millwall in a 3-1 win in the Carabao Cup back in September last year, becoming Fulham's youngest-ever debutant in the process at just 15 years and 174 days.

(Image: IAN KINGTON/AFP/Getty Images)

For a player so young to be given his first-team debut in the infamous surroundings of Millwall's Den spoke volumes of his temperament and composure.

Again, the interest in the transfer target was fierce with continental giants like Real Madrid, Barcelona and Paris Saint-Germain all keen before the boyhood Red moved to the European champions.

His debut ended in defeat against Napoli in Edinburgh before a half-hour against Lyon in Geneva last week saw Elliott turn in a performance brimming with intent and menace.

Stationed out on the right side of the attack, the left-footed Elliott paid little respect to the reputation of the Ligue 1 giants and fearlessly attacked down the wing to offer a glimpse as to why he is thought of as one of the country's most exciting teenage talents.

(Image: John Powell/Liverpool FC via Getty Images)

Those two, however highly rated, are undoubtedly players earmarked for the future of the football club. Their contributions are not expected to have a huge impact on the Reds' fortunes this coming campaign.

So, while Elliott and Van den Berg may earn their senior stripes in the cup competitions later down the line, it will be the same bunch of players ready to go again against Norwich on Friday night.

If pre-season optimism has been punctured by a lack of signings and a string of mundane results, Liverpool offered a timely reminder that they are still a heavyweight performer in Sunday's Community Shield.

A sluggish first-half was replaced by an excellent second period against title rivals Manchester City and the champions had goalkeeper Claudio Bravo to thank for a succession of excellent saves before Kyle Walker bailed his side out with some extraordinary goalline defending late on.

"The character of the team is still incredibly good," said Klopp after the game.

A lack of big-money business in the transfer market may have left some feeling flat on the eve of the new season - but Liverpool, this European Cup-winning Liverpool, can still play.

It's shaping up to be another mammoth campaign for Klopp's mentality giants.