It was only when Jurgen Klopp arrived that Liverpool’s transfer committee finally started firing, three years after its formation.
When John W Henry bought the club, in October 2010, he started creating a new transfer system fit for the modern age, powered by brains, data and technology.
One of the key appointments was director of research Ian Graham, who had a PhD in physics from Cambridge University and had been working with Tottenham. Michael Edwards was appointed as head of performance and analysis. Scouts were poached from Manchester City.
By 2012 all the pieces were in place, only then they hit a snag. They appointed Brendan Rodgers as manager.
In his first media appearance Rodgers made clear it was his way, or he was off. “I am better when I have control,” he said.
Rodgers was frustrating to work with. He ignored or dismissed advice. There were arguments and heated disagreements about players.
By 2014, Graham feared it was the end for the transfer committee. Publicly, they had become a laughing stock.
They had landed some hits in January 2013: Daniel Sturridge was a £12m signing from Chelsea, Philippe Coutinho arrived from Inter Milan for £8.5m (to be sold for a £121.5m profit five years later). But they signed a series of misses, too.
Graham hoped Rodgers would soften, but still he stuck with his own ideas.
“Season after season, first-choice targets like Alexis Sanchez and Diego Costa had slipped away while we argued about their merits,” Graham later wrote in his book, How To Win The Premier League.
Finally, Rodgers was sacked, and in came Klopp, in 2015, more accustomed to the collaborative culture in Germany where the head coach reported to a director of football.
Edwards, who became one of the finest recruiters in the game, was promoted to sporting director soon after. And the transfer committee hummed.
Sadio Mane, Joel Matip, Georginio Wijnaldum, Andy Robertson and Virgil van Dijk were signed and together, working in relative harmony, they assembled the teams that powered one of the most successful eras in Liverpool history.
You can see the fingerprints of that work – albeit with different puzzle pieces but a similar philosophy built on systems refined for over a decade – as they seize this transfer window, acting smartly and decisively and with conviction.
Compare that to Newcastle United, flailing and flapping, and the gulf between the Premier League champions and a club hoping one day to be up there is clear.
Two sporting directors leaving in less than 18 months – Dan Ashworth departing for Manchester United last year followed by Paul Mitchell recently – points to power struggles and uncomfortable dynamics.
The problem with Mitchell, who described Newcastle’s transfer policy as “not fit for purpose” last year, departing ahead of this summer is that it left a core transfer team of head coach Eddie Howe, long-standing Newcastle head of recruitment Steve Nickson and Andy Howe, Eddie’s nephew.
It is suggested now that Howe has significant control over transfers, as though the club are going back in time, to a bygone era, rather than evolving for the future.
Indeed, rival sporting directors have questioned whether the all-powerful manager is a suitable fit for a club in Newcastle’s position, with their ambitions.
Andy is making strides in the game – he is well thought of in football circles – but is he really ready to be in such a position of influence in a Champions League side?
This is not to knock Howe, who is proving his coaching credentials with two top five finishes in three years and a first major trophy in decades. But he needs to be left to coach.
This has been a summer of key targets slipping away from the club like grains of sand in an hourglass, while time runs out to salvage the window and maximise the opportunity Howe has delivered.
If losing out on James Trafford, one of the most highly rated young goalkeepers in the game and keen to sign for them, to City after moving too indecisively was a misplaced pass, the handling of Alexander Isak is a spectacular own goal.
How was it not ascertained before the transfer window opened two months ago that he wanted to leave so much he was prepared to shun the club’s pre-season tour of Singapore? Could things not have gone better had the situation been established well in advance?
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Had the window gone differently, there is a scenario whereby Newcastle signed Hugo Ekitike, reluctantly sold Isak to Liverpool, and still had around £70m in the bank.
Instead, the process could barely have been handled worse. Liverpool nicked Ekitike from under their noses and then Isak started digging in, so that they may lose him anyway, or, at the very least, start the season with a grumpy star player with eyes elsewhere.
The importance of a recruitment team should not be underestimated. Pep Guardiola once credited City’s recruitment department with “80 per cent” of the club’s success.
At one stage, Newcastle had been building towards that. This time last year, the club wanted an executive team running things.
It may have taken Liverpool several years to establish a transfer system that is the envy of the world. Newcastle’s owners bought the club four years ago now. They have had plenty of time to get this right.
Meanwhile, opportunities and chances that could transform the club’s future may already be passing them by.
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