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It has not been a good week for the much-maligned Liverpool transfer committee. The club’s summer targets - Ben Chilwell, Piotr Zielinski and Sadio Mane – have unleashed fury in a manner only football fans can. Their target, as expected, those involved in the recruitment and decision-making.

But if they dare put their head above the parapet, they would be forgiven for doing so with their arms aloft. Not in surrender, but celebration.

Perhaps they would be right to. As discussions around Mane intensify with the news he is having a medical on Merseyside, there can be little debate about one thing: the committee, and whatever it entails, got it right.

Liverpool are likely to part with around £30m for the Senegalese international, a fee that would see him become one of the club’s most expensive players.

It could have been so different, though. Two years ago, Mane was identified at Red Bull Salzburg. It was there, under the guidance of now-Leverkusen boss Roger Schmidt, were Mane bagged 13 goals in a side that dominated their domestic league, scoring a staggering 110 goals in 36 games.

He was used to playing in a side with such abandon going forward, and a move to Liverpool – 101 goals in 2013-14, of course – made sense. Brendan Rodgers did not agree, and Southampton swooped for the forward in a £12m deal.

Two years on, with Klopp already an admirer from his time at Borussia Dortmund, the deal is nearing completion – for nearly £20m more than it should have been.

There is no knowing how Mane would have developed at Anfield. It is possible he would have been dragged into the club’s season-long hangover from the failed 2014 title bid; two years under Ronald Koeman is far more desirable to a player’s progression than the instability and inconsistency that riddled Anfield.

Read: Mane on his way to Liverpool for medical

Yet the fact remains Mane was identified long before he became a £30m star. That, in essence, what the transfer committee is supposed to do; so, too, the scouting network.

One swallow does not a summer make. There has been deserved criticism levelled at the committee for mistakes of the past. Indeed, the moniker itself does not help, making it sound far more complicated, and giving it far more gravitas, than necessary. Most top-flight clubs have a multi-layered decision-making process which involves manager, scouting team and chief executive – but few have taken on an identity like Liverpool’s.

There have been the recruitment failures, too. Henrikh Mkhitaryan, Diego Costa, Willian and Alexis Sanchez have been identified and gone elsewhere. Some of the signings – Mario Balotelli, in particular – remain questionable at best.

But something is working, evidently. Credit where credit is due. Emre Can was signed for £10m and is now a full German international worth at least double. Roberto Firmino quietly enjoyed a storming maiden campaign, justifying his £29m fee. Mamadou Sakho divides opinion but he has served the Reds well.

Three young players with potential signed, integrated and developing. Three young players worth more now than they were the day they signed.

Mane could have been the fourth, his value already on the rise. That it isn’t will be a sense of frustration to those who spotted him that he isn’t.

Instead, he comes as a big-money buy. The expectation upon him is already tangible, and will be something Klopp must manage. His first season at the club suggests he will.

The names who the committee missed out on elicits a wince. Costa and Willian have since won the Premier League, Sanchez is considered one of the league’s best players and Mkhitaryan has performed at the top level in the Champions League.

Liverpool’s missed targets often go on to do great things. The Reds will hope the same can be said of Mane.