Liverpool have a choice. It is an achingly familiar one, but it is a choice nonetheless. They can accept the inevitability of Philippe Coutinho’s departure to Barcelona now, or they can hold on until the summer.

Yes, there is a third option, where they hold Coutinho to the five-year contract that he signed 12 months ago, but football economics do not work like that. There is a food chain, in which Barcelona are one of a very small cluster of supremely rich clubs at the top and Liverpool, who sold them Javier Mascherano in 2010 and Luis Suárez in 2014, are in the larger cluster just below.

Liverpool can sign Mohamed Salah from Roma, Virgil van Dijk from Southampton and, coming soon, Naby Keïta from