Even before an agreement with Bayer Leverkusen had been reached over £116m Florian Wirtz, Liverpool were being subjected to the sniping of rivals.

For the avoidance of doubt, the sale of Coutinho in January 2018 did facilitate the arrivals of £75m Virgil van Dijk and £65m Alisson Becker, which, quite neatly rounded up to a nice, even £140m and almost directly led to Jurgen Klopp's Liverpool going from pretenders to contenders and then serial winners of every major trophy between the years 2019 and 2022.

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But, of course, Liverpool have not made a habit of such an extraordinary outlay that is being paid for Germany international Wirtz.

That means that the Reds have spent, inclusive of add-ons, £41m in two years.

Since the start of the decade, Liverpool sit outside the top 10 for money spent in the Premier League and the eye-watering and potential British-record addition of Germany international Wirtz only moves them into eighth, around £30m short of West Ham United.

So no, the Coutinho is long gone at Anfield, spent wisely on two of the greatest players the club have ever had in Alisson and Van Dijk and that, ironically, is the level Wirtz is being viewed at internally at Anfield.

But if a risk-averse and often parsimonious strategy to signings has taught anything over the last few years at Anfield, it's that Liverpool often get it right when it's time to spend big
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