Liverpool’s have finished 6th and 8th since they sold Luis Suárez and the progress to the Europa League final could not disguise the flaws in the squad last season.

There was just praise for players such as Emre Can, Divock Origi, Nathaniel Clyne, Dejan Lovren (eventually) and Joe Gomez and Danny Ings (both seen all-too-briefly because of injury), but the league position was hardly vindication of the previous two years of squad reconstruction. These players might be really good, but we can’t say that with certainty yet. Suspicion will linger until Liverpool start winning trophies and qualifying for the Champions League again.

For those responsible for all the deals post-Suárez, this has to be the season of maturity for the Liverpool squad, when the ‘get them in young and develop them policy’ yields fruit. The glimpses of potential so reassuring in dispatches in games against Manchester City, Borussia Dortmund and Villarreal must morph into a consistent league campaign and successful, trophy-laden careers. By the next World Cup, the likes of Can, Clyne and Origi need to be starting for their country rather than sitting on the bench.

Klopp’s own eye for talent can now be judged with his first statements of intent in the transfer market. The mocking of Mané for being yet another player from Southampton ignores the fact three of the previous four taken from St Mary’s have turned out okay (although at a combined cost of around £70 million that’s the least you’d expect). One suspects the desire to make it known Mané was a target two years ago is more about addressing the criticism Liverpool should be signing Southampton’s choices before they get to Southampton rather than paying over double the price a few years later (we wait with baited breath for the £30m bid for Nathan Redmond in 2018).